Happy Sunday Everyone:
We’re on day 313 of the pushup challenge. Which means YTD this group has done 49,141 pushups each since 8/14 of 2024. It’s a lot, it’s also totally doable, obviously. I believe we started with 20 or so people committed to doing it. As it stands today, there are 7 of us left. There has been a group chat with 6 of us the entire time confirming each day when the job is done. In late April I get a random text from a friend & team member on the east coast asking if I was still doing the challenge. I said “yes”, having no idea he was still involved in the challenge, he’s #7 and if you asked me the day before he reached out, I’d have said there were 6 people in the challenge. In my opinion, it takes some serious team work to stay committed to this daily. There have been a handful of days where the only thing that kept me going is the accountability. For this guy to do it with no accountability to anyone is impressive.
I told him to get on the group chat with us, which he did. The whole group confirms daily, typically in the morning, the job is done. The psychological warfare that goes on in your brain throughout the day if you don’t get the pushups done first thing in the morning is massive and it gets worse as the year goes on. It’s happened to me on a few occasions, and you literally think about it every 15 minutes “I still have to do X number of pushups”. Tripp (his name) is always texting late at night when he’s done. Then he throws out a month ago after a few morning confirmations “I wish I were a morning person, great job team”. I read his words again and thought, really? I wish? This guy is 54 years old, he’s a badass, and he’s saying, “i wish I was….”. It’s so opposite of who he is I’m not sure he actually realized the limiting beliefs he was putting out there against himself. I sent him a separate email asking if he’d give me 24 hours to see if we could switch this thought process. We discussed a different morning routine, earlier, and getting the pushups done first thing before he went to the office. I ended with this; “I’d love to do the mental project on you to determine whether the lightness you feel throughout the day for having done them is worth the pain of you waking up and cranking these out.”
As I’m typing this email, Tripp has already cranked out his 313 pushups for the day. He hasn’t missed a morning confirmation since our exchange. Every morning, I see his confirmation I’m inspired by him. There are lessons to be learned by Tripp and his actions. We’re all adults. It crossed my mind that I’m delivering unsolicited advice. He didn’t ask for my input as to his morning routines. He could have so easily said “thanks but no thanks, you do you, I’ll do me”. Instead, with zero ego, he acknowledged that I’m someone that cares enough about him to offer an opinion that might make his life a little better. Zero ego, bad ass guy, 54 years old, open to suggestion, changes his mind set for the rest of his life as to whether or not he’s a morning person by trying something new. I think it’s incredible. My personal take aways from Tripp:
- I don’t love unsolicited advice. Moving forward, I need to be more intentional to listen to who is giving it, why they’re giving it, do I trust them? If the answer is yes, and I understand the why, give the advice a shot more times than not.
- Change my narrative on my own limiting beliefs. I don’t know the exact quote, but Jay Shetty said something like “we’d never say to our worst enemies what we say to ourselves”. Flip the script of my own narrative to myself, it matters.
- The reminder that short term gratification always pales in comparison to the long term. Short term gratification is Tripp sleeping in, long term gratification is every hour past 8:00AM that he gets to say, “the hard work has already been done, what else am I capable of today”.
- Leave my ego at the door, it serves no purpose. Tripp sent me a picture of the prettiest sunrise I’ve ever seen with a note that said, “one of the benefits of waking up early”. Ego wouldn’t have seen that sunrise. Be more like Tripp!
Have a great rest of your Sunday!
Hunter