The cost of doing nothing (6 Hours Left)
The one big step of courage that finally moved the needle for me...
Hey, it's Joseph. This post is a little bit different, but I want you to do a quick visualization experiment with me.
Let's imagine for a second that nothing about you really changes.
・You stay the same weight.
・You’ve got the same body composition, the same body fat percentage.
・You certainly don’t have that six-pack you said you’d get years ago.
・Your mental clarity and focus hasn’t changed, your sleep hasn’t improved.
・Your body is as inflamed and achy, with just a touch of brain fog.
・You’ve got the same level of hunger and food cravings, you find yourself debating whether to snack, bargaining with yourself that ‘I’ll just put in more work at the gym’ when you reach for that dessert.
And that will be the norm FOREVER. I want you to vividly imagine what that would be like.
How would you feel?
I know this is an uncomfortable line of questioning, but I’m trying to illustrate that there’s a big cost to doing nothing.
I'm not trying to make you feel bad.
I just know that sometimes the best way to improve is to just take action, because honestly what I’ve just described above was literally me not too long ago.
In March 2016, it wasn’t but a couple months since I had quit the job that I worked so hard to get into. It was great career path that I had seen many friends stick to for years. But while I was doing well in terms of performance, my health was taking a huge hit and I was gaining a bunch of weight and just feeling worse and worse - physically and mentally. I quit the job actually because I had this big goal of succeeding as an entrepreneur.
What was scary was once I left my job … I didn’t do anything for several months. One day after looking at some pictures of my travels in Bali, I was thinking ‘how can I succeed as an entrepreneur if I can’t even change my own body?’
I realized that if I didn’t muster the courage to take action and make a change... I would actually be worse than the same ol’ pudgy Joseph …because I was burning through my savings.
The scary thing is... for most people the scenario of everything staying the same is actually pretty realistic.
Just think: How long have you been coasting along on a dissatisfying level of health? When are you going to do something that will really move the needle?
For me, that first big step that took a lot of courage but really moved the needle was a 7-day fast. I did it with the aim of changing my body, but it honestly changed my life. On one hand I can count the number of times I felt and experience ‘changed my life.’
I mean, what does that even mean? Sometimes it feels like people toss the phrase ‘life-changing’ around too much, but there are a few life-changing moments for me and I see them as shifts in perspective. That is, doing something that expanded my perception of what is possible for me.
Getting through a 7-day fast indeed seemed to reprogram not only my psychological perception of hunger but also the physical experience of it. That was fantastic.
What I didn’t expect it to do was get me to experience on a visceral level that the human body is massively resilient. I loved that feeling of teaching myself we are stronger than we think.
All my life I was under the impression that we’re this kind of rickety engine that sputters out real quick if you don’t get ‘three square meals a day.’ …Then I didn’t eat anything for 7-days. Honestly it wasn’t too long before I did that fast that I learned that that was even possible.
When I’d tell people about the week-long fast they’d first think I had misspoke - many told me they didn’t know that that was possible.
Let’s be real, my first fast sucked hard. I didn’t know what I was doing.
Though, this experience not only reduced my hunger… it lead me to start being much more courageous and taking action on other things I was too scared to try. Eventually I took a chance and put my efforts into a little Youtube channel … and that’s why you’re reading this now.
As a kid, I wanted to learn to do backflips …but I would always stop the spin halfway and land on my back because I was too afraid that if I followed through … I’d hit my head.
Going through school and college, I had never been in a fight even once.
But, just last month I got in a boxing ring to fight this guy aiming to be a pro boxer …because I thought it would be a fun challenge. That guy from 2016 would never have even considered that.
I can’t take action for you and I can’t fast for you … but I can show you how to skip the clunky experimentation that I had to go through.
The first day of the weekend workshop Fast to Last starts in just 6 HOURS and sign up will close today at 9PM Japan time.
See you there, Joseph.
P.S. IF THE TIME ISN’T CONVENIENT FOR YOU, you will certainly have access to a recording of the webinar if you grab a seat.
Hey Joseph, I love what you do! I would like to take part in your webinar "fast to last", but can't make it this weekend / timeshift. Is it possible to get a recording?