Overcoming obstacles is about your mindset and what you do, not about the obstacle.
Last week I had my first “bad day” at work. I’ve been doing the job for about six months now and enjoying the challenge, the work, and the obstacles there. I saw everything as a leadership challenge and a problem to be solved.
As usual, those things take longer to change than you ever anticipate. Instead of hiring another person, we lost one. And, in case you missed the national news, Texas had a major snowstorm that stopped the city of San Antonio for a week. I was snowed in. It was annoying, but we pushed through (you can read about it here). At work we had pipes burst in the ceiling and it rained on our computers and offices. We lost all of our office space and half our computers.
All of that makes for lots of extra work… tons. Last Tuesday I just got down. And work was a hard and impossible feeling.
About five years ago I was hit with major depression and probably should have seen someone and maybe been on drugs. I did the stupid manly thing and just pushed through. I suggest you avoid depression if you can, and get help as soon as it seems to be a problem. Don’t be stupid like me.
Even after the obstacle of one bad day, I’m afraid that depression will come back. But I turned my mindset into having a better day the following day and overcame my obstacle.
Overcoming obstacles is all about your mindset. You have to see what you want to do in your mind’s eye first, and then you can do it. The Bible says, without hope, the people perish. Zig Ziglar says the student with no hope of passing the test won’t study, and hope is a choice. You gain hope by seeing how you can do things in your mind’s eye. The student that sees themselves passing the test has hope it can happen, then can study, they can overcome the obstacle. It’s simple, like most things in life, but it ain’t easy.
One of the ways I gain hope of overcoming obstacles is by looking at my past. After having a horrible Tuesday I looked back at my employment for the last six months. This is the first “bad day” I’ve had. I simply told myself over and over, that I can have a bad day at work every six months. That still makes this an awesome job.
Look back at your past record of overcoming obstacles. I know you have overcome some incredible things in your life. Most of us forget about them right after they happen, but you still did them.
Take stock of those things that you have survived and/or thrived in. Now, look at the obstacle you are trying to overcome. Use that past strength to find your way to overcoming the obstacles in front of you.
If the obstacle seems bigger than anything you have ever accomplished in your past, laugh about it now, and tell the story now as if you have already overcome it. This will be your new story of triumph and victory!
Now go out and overcome those obstacles you are facing!
To Rise and Grind: The Power List and 75 Hard
Mar 07, 2021
Show notes
Sometimes you just have to rise and grind through to get to the next stage, or just something better.
A couple of weeks ago I survived snowpocalypse / snovid here in San Antonio Texas. It was an exciting week with lots of challenges. While the snow is gone I am still digging myself out and trying to find the week I lost while snowed in.
Now it’s back to the grind. I have lots of work to get back on track.
Do you ever feel like it’s just a rise and grind time in your life?
You get up, do what needs to be done, just to do it again tomorrow and the next day… and the day after that?
It’s a groundhog day, but not the fun kind like the movie.
There is a book called Rise and Grind all about just getting up and doing it longer, faster, and more than everyone else. It wasn’t my favorite book. Daymond John wrote the book and just repeated you have to rise and grind every day of your life to win. I don’t rise and grind every day of my life. It sucks!
I rise and grind to get through a hard time to better times. I set time limits on how long I will be in a season of work and what I will do on the other end. I’m not looking to be a billionaire but just a successful salesman, man, father, husband, and Christian. A simple life…
By creating priorities and doing them I can get through this season and onto something else.
I use the Power List from Andy Frisella. The same person who developed the 75 Hard Challenge.
Both are simple ideas and simple to use. You pick five things that have to get done today and that becomes your power list. You pick five things that if you do them every day will make you a better person and that is my 75 Hard Challenge.
Neither is easy… any day. But if you do both my your sky-rockets forward in whatever way you have chosen to do (prioritize and execute).
I put both of these in a notebook that I carry with me everywhere. When I do it, my life gets better. When I don’t, it stays the same or gets worse.
So I keep doing it.
Can you do these simple things? Do you think you could do it continually to make yourself better and the world a better place?
Stop Improving for the Test? 75 Hard
Feb 27, 2021
Show notes
Should you stop improving yourself for the test or keep going?
Last week was a frozen hell in San Antonio Texas. No power, water, or internet for most of the work week with temperatures well below freezing all week (-10 with windchill). For Texas it was cold.
None of the systems built in Texas are designed for cold. They are all designed for mild winters and 100 plus-degree summers. Our homes and road are designed to be cooled and not warmed. Most years I don’t need a heater in my home for more than a week all year. And that is only to keep the house above 65.
Last week we got almost a foot of snow in San Antonio. No one was prepared. So people do what they always do in an emergence, raid the Walmart. By Sunday everything in the local stores was gone.
The power grid was never designed for the cold. Rolling blackouts to conserve electricity and keep it going failed when the power couldn’t be turned back on once it was turned off. Without power, all the local stores were forced to close.
People were on their own.
It didn’t bother me that much. I’ve got water, food, heaters, cold weather gear, and wood to burn in the fireplace. Survival wasn’t the problem for me or my family. My worry was what are the people around me going to do as food becomes scarce?
So during the emergency I stopped training and worrying about my diet. I ate what we had and walked the neighborhood to check on things and my neighbors.
We do all this work to make the hard times easier. Doing 75 Hard is voluntary hardship that makes you harder for the hard times.
The hard times came for my family for a week. It wasn’t as hard as it could have been. And honestly, it was a week off for me without much work.
The only miserable time I had was stomping through the snow for hours looking for a water cut off in the ground. Our community pool had two different pipes break and since I’m on the board I ended up working on it. It was miserably cold but easily doable.
Other people talked about their ordeal and how miserable it was. It was slightly annoying and a little bit of old school work. We actually melted snow at one point to do dishes because we had no water.
It was just part of life and a small adventure for me because of done hard things in my life. Some voluntary (like 75 Hard, get your 75 Hard Starters Guide here) and some not so much when I was a Marine. But to an extent, that was still voluntary too. We had a joke when things got hard, “you signed on the dotted line.” Meaning, you volunteered to be a United States Marine and this is part of it.
How do you do when things get tough?
When life gets hard do you stop everything and only concern yourself with survival?
At what point do you put off getting better and just survive?
All questions I’m still asking myself. I was prepared mentally for the last week to be much tougher.
Water the Weight Loss Drink
Feb 14, 2021
Show notes
How much water do you drink? How much water should you drink to lose weight? For your health?
I’ve been failing on my health journey lately. I’ve given up the 75 Hard Challenge I started the day after Christmas because I just couldn’t do it.
One of the things I failed was drinking water. Water is the best weight loss drink on the planet. I want to lose weight, but still failed to drink enough water. It’s those simple things that can get us every time.
Unless you’ve been in the military, you probably don’t know what truly being hydrated means. And you probably don’t know how much water you could truly drink without any problems.
In Marine Corps Boot Camp I was forced to drink at least two gallons a day of water. We where forced to drink at least 320 ounces of water a day. Yes, that number is correct. We got up in the morning and where forced to drink a full 32 ounce canteen and then hold it upside down over our heads to make sure you drank every last sip. Then at night before we went to bed, we did the same. And about every hour in between we where forced to do the same.
At first I thought it was a way of torturing us for being bad. Nope, it was a way to make sure we got the hydration we needed to survive the day.
I know your normal day isn’t as active as boot camp, but you still need a lot more water then you think. And if you are over weight, water is the weight loss drink.
How much water should you be drinking? It depends. A gallon is a good place to start. That is 128 ounces. If you think that is too much, drink half your body weight in ounces.
What I’ve found, is that I feel better when I drink a gallon of water a day. Yes, you have to go to the bathroom more, but that is good. You are flushing all the crap you’ve been eating for the year our of your system. It helps you metabolism, your sleep, your digestion, your hunger, your physical performance, and the list goes on and on.
So why aren’t you drinking more water? Other things taste so much better! I know. I’m there right now. I drink Monster Energy drinks like it’s going out of style. And lately I’ve been hydrating more and more with them. Not good at all.
If you start drinking a gallon of water per day, the water will start tasting great and you will start craving it over other things. It’s about starting that self disciple. Once you get it going it’s easy.
Go get you some water weight loss drink! It will make everything in your life better.
Stress Eating: Do you do it? Is it a thing?
Feb 07, 2021
Show notes
Does stress eating actually happen?
Yes, stress eating is a thing. It comes from us having an unhealthy relationship with food, or so I’m told.
I just know that stress has been getting to me lately. We are down two people at work and I’m trying to cover down and do three peoples’ jobs. All three are getting done, but none of them are getting done well. Which stresses me out more.
The more stressed I get, the more I turn to stress eating. I want donuts, cakes, nachos, and pancakes. I want to eat just about anything that isn’t good for me or on my diet.
I have been working on a 75 Hard Challenge since the day after Christmas and I’ve been failing. Especially on the diet. I look at what I have to do at work and then stop for a donut on the way in.
I get stressed at work and walk across the street to get a couple of tacos and a candy bar because I need to get away for a little.
If you do the same thing I know you are overweight like me. Especially as I get older there isn’t enough exercise in the world to get over my love of donuts.
The book Atomic Habits, it’s all about replacing the bad habit with a good one. I’ve tried to just not eat the donuts, cakes, ice cream, and chocolate but that just doesn’t seem to be realistic in life these days. Those things are everywhere and we have a deep survival instinct to eat the high sugar crap. Our bodies are always thinking the next meal may not come, so eat what you can now. And eat the stuff that will store the most energy (fat).
I haven’t figured out how to completely beat my stress eating yet but have found two things that help me:
1 – Drink lots of water. The more water I drink, the less I want something to eat. Sometimes I have to drink half a gallon of water to make the cravings go away, but it does work sometimes.
2 – Eat something else. For a while nuts were working for me. I could eat a handful or two and not want much else.
Neither one of these techniques works 100% of the time and my will power will only go so far.
So I’ve decided to work on my will power. Will it work for you? I have no idea if it will even work for me. I’m just taking you along my journey and hopefully, you see something that will work for you and get off the track of stress eating too much.
Two things in my life have really affected my physical comfort in life, my age, and weight. My age I can’t fix, but the weight, I can.
As my weight has been going up over the years my health and my lifestyle have been suffering. I don’t go on things I want to because I’m afraid of the weight. I’m also afraid of the amount of pain that trip will cause me.
I’m currently 325 pounds. I noticed that over 300 pounds I couldn’t jump in and out of my truck without pain. I can’t walk for long periods of time without back pain building up. And I can’t run hardly at all. Not that I ever really liked just running, I do like the idea of hard races like Tough Mudder Runs,Go Ruck, and the Tactical Games.
So today, Sunday, I’m working on my will power. I’ve decided to fast all day Sunday just to prove to myself that I can stay away from food. I’m still working the slow carb diet and my off day is Saturday. So that actually makes it harder. And I’m doing that on purpose.
I have to once again break my addiction to food. Stress eating is not helping my addiction at all!
How about you? Do you stress eat? Does it make you feel better or worse? Can you use more will power?
More will power is what the 75 Hard Challenge is all about. It’s you against your will. Will you win or let your subconscious dictate your life? Self-discipline, willpower, and grit is all learned and practiced traits. Doing something hard or going without builds that muscle.
You are either working on your discipline, will power, and grit, or letting it atrophy. There is no staying the same.
What will you do to regain the disciple, willpower, and grit that will stop you from stress eating?
Keeping Your Sanity: Day 30 of 75 Hard
Jan 26, 2021
Show notes
Keeping your sanity can be a trick in today’s crazy world. Here is a trick I picked up recently that might help.
Our world continues to change and stay the same. Fads come and go at the speed of light, and some of our underlying societal problems seem to be the same today as decades ago.
You need to focus on what you can do toward keeping your sanity. If you watch the news, read social media, or talk to anyone it feels like the world is going to end tomorrow. It hasn’t yet, and probably won’t tomorrow either.
By doing this blog and podcast I have to figure out and put into words something that helped me while going through my 75 Hard Challenges. When I was doing the blog daily I articulated the lessons that I learned that day.
By stopping to think about what I learned that day, it made me realize I heard it all before. But now, I was learning the lessons.
Recently I started doing a 3-2-1 video that helped me focus like this blog and podcast.
A 3-2-1 video is simply a video you make of yourself telling yourself:
3 successes or things you are thankful for recently,
2 regrets or things you would adjust,
and 1 piece of advice you would give future you.
I did the video a few times and it helped by keeping my sanity going in the right direction but seemed to take a lot of effort. So I changed it.
Now I use the formula to journal. I just write the three successes I’ve had since I last journaled, the two regrets or adjustments to my life I should have made, and the one piece of advice I would give future me.
You can do this and it will help keep your sanity in insane times.
If you like the idea of doing a video, pick up your phone, hit record, and point it at yourself. Then, on camera figure it out. I felt stupid so I scripted it and it took me too long.
If you want to do it on paper you could simply make a list. List three things you are grateful for or you were successful at. List two things you would have done differently. And finally, give yourself one piece of advice you want to remember for the future.
None of this is for your grandkids to look back at, but it could be something that helps you keep your sanity as the world falls apart around you.
We can make the world a better place by making ourselves better and helping the people around us be better. It’s simple, but not easy. Start by looking in the mirror, and making a change.
What Happens in Your House: Day 23 of 75 Hard
Jan 19, 2021
Show notes
“… our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White House, but on what happens inside your house.” – Barbra Bush
Your success depends on what happens in your house and not what happens in the White House or any other house for that matter.
What you do matters!
What you do makes you successful or a failure!
The way you lead your family matters and makes it successful.
What happens in the world matters to your success so little that you should stop thinking about it.
A couple weeks ago I was worried about the Capital being overrun, apps being deplatformed, and a bunch of other crap. This week I stopped watching the news and reading social media.
I consentrated on me, my family, and my work, and how I could make those better. Those are the things that matter in my life. Who is the president is so far down the list that I’m not even paying attention.
You should try getting off social media and the news. Don’t worry, if something really important happens, someone will tell you. Every time something happens in the world that pertains to me, someone I know calls me whether I’m watching the news of not.
This week I’ve been happier and I’ve already seen an uptick in my output at work.
When you concentrate on what you need to do and not what the social media machine tells you to concentrate on, you get better. When you get better, the people around you get better.
If we all concentrated on making ourselves better and the people immediately around us better, the entire world would be a better place.
Focus on Yourself: Day 15 of 75 Hard
Jan 10, 2021
Show notes
Focus on yourself to be successful in everything you do in life.
What do you look like when you focus on yourself? Are you where you want to be? Are you on the road to where you want to be? Do you know where you want to be?
Easy questions right…. wrong. That last question is something I’ve struggled with all my life. I’ve always looked ahead to something vague and broad. I’m not really sure why I couldn’t focus down on what I wanted. I think it is part of that inward journey we are all on for a lifetime.
Growing up the first passion I remember is playing base. I started in the grade school orchestra and moved up. Started playing in jazz band and marching band in jr high and high school. It made me really popular (not). But I enjoyed it and thought this something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
I had the talent, but the drive to be good enough. Now it’s been years since I’ve touched a base. I still have an electric bass, but it gathers dust.
During high school, I changed my focus and wanted to be a police officer. At the time all I wanted was an adventurous way to help other people. That led me to join the Marine Corps, where they taught me all sorts of bad habits.
I was a good combat Marine, but couldn’t quite get the politics or barracks life. I loved being in the field in learning the craft of infantry. I worked at it and excelled at it. I read every book I could get my hands on about it. That’s how I lovingly got the call sign “brain” because I always had my nose in a book when training wasn’t happening.
Since I didn’t get along with the commanders in the rear (those that didn’t go or didn’t want to go to the field) I wasn’t as successful as I could have been. I got a chance to earn a boatload of money (compared to a Marine was making) to do the same thing as a contractor. So I became a mercenary (for the U.S. Government) and excelled at force protection.
I guarded bases for the U.S. Military in Iraq for a couple of years. There I continued to read everything I could get my hands on. Including a lot of secret and classified documents on war. I had the clearance back then.
For most of my life, I continually worked on the position I was in or the position I wanted to be in. I failed to focus on myself. Take my lesson and focus on yourself.
I would have been wildly more successful if I had focused on being a better me inside the position I was in. Focusing on yourself means looking in the mirror and seeing what kind of person you are, and what can be improved, and then working on it.
Right now my biggest problem is I’m fat. Been that way most of my life. I’ve always known it was a problem but failed to address it any more than I had to. I just barely made the standard to be a Marine my entire career. I barely made the standard for the police academy. I slipped under the radar as a contractor. And as I got older it’s been a problem with my health.
All because I failed to focus on myself. Helping others is a noble goal, but how much better can you be at it, if you are the best you, you can be?
I’ve put a lot of things before myself in my life. Most of them not for a noble goal. But as an excuse not to fix me.
I’m now 43 years old and just figuring out that I need to start fixing myself first, and then can help others.
It’s not about stopping everything else you are doing to focus on yourself, it’s about taking time every day to focus on yourself so that you can get on the right path. Once you are on the right path in life you will be able to help so many more people.
And you don’t have to be perfect to start or do anything. You just have to do it. Focus on yourself.
I’m chronically my journey here to help you. Most of what I learn on my 75 Hard Challenges is nothing new. I heard it all before. I’ll be someone else who has told you to focus on yourself first. On an airplane is always the example given, put your mask on first and then… I’m tired of hearing it! But now I’m getting it.
I want to be a better person and help you be a better person. From there we can all help one more person, and then another and another. And, I’m hoping, we can make the world a better place.
Are you with me? Try the 75 Hard Challenge yourself. You’ll learn things about yourself, and it will make you a better person.
Bring it 2021! Day 7 of 75 Hard
Jan 03, 2021
Show notes
Bring it on! I’m ready to conquer 2021 after the shit show of 2020.
I’m seven days into my 75 Hard Challenge, which might as well be my New Years Resolution.
I tried to start the day after Christmas and failed, but then restarted the next day. Now I’m seven days down and 68 to go!
How well did you start 2021 and when?
After the shit-show that was 2020, I was ready to start early. And I started by trying a 75 Hard before Christmas and failing. Then I reset for the day after Christmas and failed. So I started again. Now I am seven days in.
In the last seven days, it hasn’t been great, but I’ve lost a couple of pounds and been working out. I really want to get back into fighting shape.
I was a U.S. Marine at one time and in great shape. I loved being physically fit and then life got in the way for about a decade. Now I’m fat, old, and out of shape. I can, and am, doing something about two out of three.
Persistence is the key to everything. I’m learning that, again and again, the hard way through these 75 Hard Challenges.
I’ve been learning everything the hard way during my 75 Hard Challenges.
One of the things I’m remembering, and learning again, from being a Marine is “bring it on!” We use to say that to any challenge. Didn’t matter what it was.
Now I find myself saying “bring it” to 2021. I’m ready for 2020 to be a memory and ready for 2021 to be in full swing.
Bring on the challenge. Bring on the new year. Bring on the challenge.
Whatever happens and whatever it is, my attitude this year is going to be with the arrogance of a young Marine and say “bring it!”
What about you? What is your attitude towards the new year? What are you going to do this year? What goals have you set?
Hope for the Future: Day 1 of 75 Hard
Dec 27, 2020
Show notes
Hope for the future maybe all we have this year.
As 2020 wraps up is there hope for the future? I have hope. Lots of it!
I’m trying to make 2021 my best year ever. I thought 2020 was going to be one of the best years ever but turned into a building year for me. New job, new career, new industry, a complete and utter change. And I like it.
Hope is a great gift. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. It’s hard to get anywhere without hope for the future. How’s your hope? Do you have any?
2020 has kicked all of us in the ass. And the complete truth is we won’t know how badly it screwed us, our country, and the world’s economy for years. We have to have hope the future will be better. Can you imagine living like we have this year for the rest of your life? Me neither.
I’m moving forward with hope. I’m starting a 75 Hard challenge today. I’m making my life better one way or another. I know that I can make myself better no matter what happens in the world. And no matter what happens in the world I will make my situation better.
I have hope in myself and the people around me, my family, and my friends. Whoever becomes president of the United States won’t make a giant difference in my life. Honestly, if my hobby wasn’t shooting and self-defense firearms I wouldn’t even bother voting… it makes that little difference in my life. Because I will win in life no matter who becomes president.
You need the same attitude. You get an attitude of winning with hope in yourself that grows into hope for the future. Hope is simply a belief that things will get better. If things will only get worst in life, why are we living?
You can find your hope anywhere. Look at the people that love you, do they need you? Do you provide anything for them? If not… why not! Give them something of value. Everyone is worth something. Find that something in you and give it to those around you and you will find your hope for the future.
If you don’t know what that “something” is you have; try a bunch of things until you find something you like, are good at, and can give away. Now get out there and get after it.
Like everything else in life finding hope for the future takes action. You have to do something. Hope will not find you sitting in your room hiding from the world. Get out there and do something. Go for a walk, meet some people, call someone, do some work for your job. With a little work, you will find your hope for the future.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
