75 Hard - Reflection
27 JULY 2022
DAY 56
Introduction
In 2019, after my first employer shut their doors, I started my consulting business - Flex Cosmetics. It sparked an arc of personal and business development fascination. I started to consume and take note of everything. One business podcast that I couldn’t get enough of was the MFCEO Project with Andy Frisella and Vaughn Kohler. It was a library of real, practical business advice from someone who’s built, and is building in a similar model to my vision. Not only was it practical, but it was relatable and actually real. I learned a lot from it and it inspired me to continue creating my vision while building one day at a time. At some point, I came across 75 Hard and listened to it, learned about it, and internalized it for future use. It’s no secret that we’re all on our own journeys that are full of ups and downs, being human can be hard sometimes. I started my business and hit some milestones there, as well as in my personal development and lifestyle goals. But things get stagnant at times and I’m on a roller coaster of sustained productivity up, then pure laziness and apathy on the way down. At the beginning of this year, as I always do, I wrote out my goals based on my long term plans. A lot of them are related to my business and career plans, but I like to have some for my personal development and lifestyle. One of them was to complete 75 Hard, at that point things were going well so I questioned if I even needed to or not. Going into the summer things started to get stagnant and I could see opportunities in front of me that I was too apathetic to pursue. I reflected back on my one year goals and decided it was time to complete one. This program is meant to instill mental toughness. By completing these mundane tasks day in and day out, you’re winning the battle with yourself against lazy compulsions and an apathetic mindset. Each day I was more and more determined to keep going, now that it’s over, I’m searching for ways to perpetuate that determination. I haven’t let off of my habits, but I’m looking for ways to prepare to face the inner person I battled with before.
Notes
DAY 1 - 192
DAY 3 - 188.3
DAY 4 - 188.4
DAY 6 - 188.2
DAY 13 - 186.8
DAY 18 - 184
DAY 26 - 180
DAY 30 - 181 (MAINTAINING 180-183)
DAY 38 - 177.7, 17.93% BODY FAT; GOAL IS 167 AND 13% BODY FAT
DAY 39 - WATER BOTTLES - 8
DAY 45 - 75H BREAKTHROUGH - BIZ AND PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY BECOMING GAMIFIED; MAKE SURE TO DOC THOUGHTS AND BREAKTHROUGHS AND COMBINE THIS ONE WITH PREVIOUS
DAY 46 - 175
DAY 48 - MAKE POWER LIST, WEEKLY GOALS, AND ROCKS PUBLIC FOR ACCOUNTABILITY, BUILD IN PUBLIC; MAKE SURE TO MAINTAIN A STANDARD FOR WHEN 75 HARD IS DONE
DAY 49 - BREAKTHROUGH - EVERYDAY FEELS LIKE ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHERE EVERYTHING IS CLICKING
DAY 53 - 169.6
DAY 54 - HARDEST DAY
DAY 55 - 171.2
DAY 56 - STARTING JOURNEY DOC
DAY 57 - SECOND BRAIN BUILT ORGANICALLY THEN STUMBLED ACROSS RESOURCES THAT VALIDATED IT
DAY 60 - WATER BOTTLES - 8
DAY 61 - WATER BOTTLES (32OZ) - 4; PLAN AHEAD FOR END OF 75 HARD, ESTABLISH PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY TO MAINTAIN FOCUS AND DETERMINATION; 75 HARD LOSING ITS LUSTER, STARTING TO FEEL LIKE A HABIT NOW AND NOT AS MUCH AS SOMETHING IM STRUGGLING TO IMPLEMENT
DAY 62 - MAKE A SPLASH BY THE TIME IT’S OVER, LAST ONE WAS BUYING 1EM
DAY 63 - WHAT’S THE SPLASH GONNA BE? FINANCING, NEWSLETTER, EBOOK?
DAY 64 - WORK STILL FEELS GAMIFIED
DAY 65 - 170.0
DAY 66 167.5, SWITCH TO MAINTAIN
DAY 69 - 170.6
DAY 75 - BODY FAT - 16.9%; WEIGHT - 168 LBS
Takeaways
The specifics:
Main lesson - we are far more capable and have more time then we realize
This program helped me find my passion - building systems and processes
Planning ahead, time, task, and project management
Working towards a time-oriented goal helps to apply urgency and doing it in public forces you to hold yourself accountable
Books read - The Checklist Manifesto, Traction, and The Book On Flipping Houses; elaborate on what was extracted from these books and immediately implemented into my businesses
Despite losing 25 lbs and 9% of body fat, the physical change does not compare to the mental shift and breakthroughs in mindset; this program instantly reinstalled the passion I have for self-improvement
Business success - increased revenue and productivity
Started, failures, accomplishments (according to calendar)
150 workouts, 75 gallons of water, 750 pages read
Pipeline networking (based on purple cow, marketing to sneezers); cold outreach execute, follow up, systemize, and delegate
full migration from calendar to clickup to consolidate and streamline personal task, project, and time management;
Daily power list; weekly and monthly goals (based on one-year plan)
Journaling - power list, to do’s, affirmations (start with why), categorizing and prioritizing (matrix)
Second brain
New client projects for Flex Cosmetics (project steps toward successful launch)
Habits - duolingo streak, team touch base, investing strategies, writing, gratitude, visualization, and meditation (some cold showers)
Bluesky formulations
Content calendar systemization in clickup
Complete move in to new facility for Flex Cosmetics
ProcessDriven course to systemize my business on ClickUp
MindMaps
Setup and request testimonials for Flex Cosmetics
Budgeting and Personal Finance maintenance
Full-time job with it’s own accomplishments/failures
SOPs and Roles defined for Flex Cosmetics’ HQ
Articles (list); books (ebook, the flex project)
1EM - housework, maintenance, and projects
Created a Vision/Traction Organizer for Flex Cosmetics and started implementing EOS (Traction); Meeting Pulse with prep work and agenda for same page meetings and weekly leadership, sales & marketing, operations, and finance - create issue lists and assign to-do’s; Scorecard for tracking data; Created visual and pitch for Our Proven Process
E-commerce marketing campaigns
Flex Brand - planning
SEO - research, checklist, deep work
Flex Cosmetics - Business Plan and Executive Summary
Flex Cosmetics - hired a Social Media Manager and automated process for Systems’ HQ
Flex Cosmetics - trained and delegated existing Sales & Marketing responsibilities and maintained current ones on a weekly basis
Established a three-phase content strategy for SEO
Phase 2 - landing page, content, and infrastructure for new Flex Cosmetics newsletter based off of pending ebook - How To Launch; generating more value for better exchange (subscriptions and email list)
Building and automating Flex Cosmetics’ PRODUCT LAUNCH PROGRAM (PLP)
Creating a Vision/Traction Organizer for Flex Corporation (The Flex Project)
Conclusion
I’ve been getting more and more nervous by the day about this program coming to an end. Although there’s more to be accomplished (Live Hard), I feel like I got so much out of 75 Hard and have thought of some different ways to perpetuate what I’ve gotten from it. I’d like to live with it for a bit to see what happens, if I slip, I’ll re-evaluate. The reason I’ve been nervous is because this program established a tangible goal for me that I was determined to reach, and having everyone aware of it created a sense of accountability. Throughout the program I felt like I had no choice but to win the day. This is a good thing, and to be able to implement it in my other projects would feel like a super power. I plan to do this by setting goals and working towards them in public. Although it’s my plan, I haven’t determined how I want to get there yet. I want to create a personal brand around building in public, creating systems, and optimizing productivity. I think that doing this in public would help me get that sense of accountability I’ve had from this program. I’ll post current lifestyle and business goals, for example - my goals for this quarter are a few projects for Flex Cosmetics, and to set up an oversight entity, and solidify my “Second Brain” system in ClickUp. I’ve been working towards these goals throughout 75-hard, but when that’s over, I’ll need to set some lifestyle goals to perpetuate that feeling of working towards something. By October 1st, I want to have maintained the same diet, weight, and be making progress towards my goal of 13% body fat.
Obviously, this program coming to an end is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. But in terms of what it's done for me, it is hard to put into words. I can’t recall a time in my life where I’ve had this much clarity and sustained a level of productivity for as long as I did during this program. The best way I’ve been able to put it to friends and family is that work has started to feel like a game (in the best way possible), my inner dialogue has been conquering lazy compulsions, and every day has felt like “one of those days” where everything is clicking. It took a couple weeks to get there, and the last few weeks have been tough from a physical standpoint, but my mind is in complete control.
The main reason I did this program is business. I’ve listened to every episode of the MFCEO (and Real AF) podcast with Andy Frisella, who created and put out this program for free. I knew going into it that it was more of a mental toughness program than some fitness challenge. And I had opportunities in front of me from a business perspective, I felt like I needed a push to take advantage of them and get going in the right direction, things were stagnant. These last 75 days of course have done that for me, but for my future self - stop getting distracted by 100s of projects and starting too many things at once. I have a problem with the shiny object syndrome, the “100s” comment isn’t really an exaggeration. However, I am implementing two systems to help me with this. The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) based on the book “Traction” by Gino Wickman, and “Building a Second Brain” based on the book by Tiago Forte. My biggest failure during this program was letting that syndrome get a hold of me and starting things I couldn’t finish, however, my biggest success was discovering and implementing these two systems. I’ll provide tons of information and detail on the two, but for now, EOS has allowed me to compartmentalize my business in terms of current focus and long term goals, and Second Brain has done the same in my personal life.
My plan to perpetuate what I’ve gotten out of 75 Hard is to create my personal brand around it (theflexproject.ck.page). My website will be pretty typical but it will include my lifestyle goals and business goals for the next 90 days, one year, three years, and ten years. I’ll use my platform to provide valuable content around how I’m working to reach these goals. This will likely be in the form of regular social media content and a weekly newsletter/email course. The reason is to build in public, create my brand, and provide value in the form of inspiration to others who want to systemize their productivity. Building in public and publishing my goals are the ways that I want to perpetuate the 75 Hard lifestyle. For me, the combination of big goals and public accountability creates determination.
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