[00:00] Josh Bonhotal: Every morning, I’ll typically do either a cold tub or a cold shower. And honestly for me, it’s less about diving into the science of whether or not and how much this might be driving a physiological response. More for me, and even the workout streak too, it’s a mindset for me. It’s something I never want to do and it’s really hard to get yourself to do it.

[00:26] Josh Bonhotal: It sucks no matter how many times you do it. Like, you don’t get used to it. Like, being cold just sucks. And so to me, there’s something about that of starting my day, knowing that I’ve done something that really sucks. I didn’t want to do. And frankly, not that many other people would do.

[00:46] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Welcome to another episode of Success for the Athletic Minded Man. Real talk on harnessing your athletic drive for clarity, consistency, and focus. In business and life. This is your host, Jim Harsha Jr. And today I bring you Josh Bonnetall. Josh’s story starts with his childhood dream of playing for the Chicago bulls.

[01:08] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And he shares a story about this letter that he wrote to himself in third grade. And then craziest thing happened 15 years later. I’m not even gonna tell you. You’ve got to listen. It’s pretty wild. And I want you to imagine like, what if this happened to you? Like, what if your third grade self, what if you get a letter from your third grade self?

[01:26] Jim Harshaw Jr.: What would that say? It’s pretty cool what Josh’s letter says to him and what happened in his life. And he also talks about his coaching career, working with Olympic gold medalists. NBA legends, including MVP, Derek Rose, and he shapes some pivotal moments in his life that led to this unconventional path.

[01:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He also talks about his fitness and mindfulness habits. He’s at a 1, 397 day streak of never missing a workout, which is. Pretty crazy. So Josh is a really unique guy. He’s found success in multiple areas of his life and share some really practical advice for you. And I think it would be inspiring and informative at the same time.

[02:06] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So here we go. My interview with Josh Bonato. So you were in third grade and you believed that you could play for the Chicago bulls. Why did you believe that? And what was that about when you were in third grade? What did you do there that, uh, set you on that course?

[02:23] Josh Bonhotal: I was, and, and I think I believed that for far longer than I should have.

[02:28] Josh Bonhotal: So most people would probably call me delusional, but when I was in third grade, I actually had my third grade teacher gave us sort of a time capsule assignment, write a letter to your future self, 15 years from now. Where will you be? What will you be doing? And I have no idea how she did it. But 15 years later, I got that letter in the mail.

[02:50] Josh Bonhotal: I just graduated college. University of Wisconsin was in my first week as. An intern for the bulls as, as a strength and conditioning coach. And I was commuting from home every day, about an hour and a half away in Wisconsin. And so I came home one day, got this letter, no idea what it is. Open it up. And it was that letter I wrote in third grade.

[03:12] Josh Bonhotal: It was literally one line and a little like chicken scratch drawing underneath it, and all it said was, I will be the starting point guard for the Chicago bulls. So for me. That was really like, in many ways, my full circle moment, because it was sort of that dream and that belief and really the stubbornness to like pursue that dream at all costs that like one way or another.

[03:40] Josh Bonhotal: I will make it there. And along the way I was at least wise enough to go, okay, well if somehow I don’t play for the bulls, which by the way, I was not that good at basketball. Like I didn’t play in college or anything like that. So I was delusional. I, I was wise enough to go, if I don’t play for them, what’s another way in what’s, what’s a backup plan?

[04:02] Josh Bonhotal: And so, yeah, that moment, like getting that letter, as you could imagine, was pretty emotional in, in a lot of ways to kind of reflect. Here’s this, you know, third grade kid who my friends and family outside of my parents, my parents, always my mom, especially anything you set your mind to, you can do. And I think it, to get to your question of like, why did I believe that really?

[04:25] Josh Bonhotal: My mom, I mean, my dad as well, but my mom, especially like my entire childhood. Always, if there was no matter how crazy the thing was, if I said I was going to do something or I wanted to do something, she put everything behind, not only believing in me that I could do it, but supporting me in any way that she could so that I could do it.

[04:47] Josh Bonhotal: So, I mean, that moment to reflect and. Realize, you know, all the struggle and sacrifice. And here I am 22 years old, living out my dream, a different version of it, but still living out my dream was pretty incredible.

[05:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. That’s a fascinating story. Do you have a goal or a dream like that now? Just curious.

[05:08] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Like you have that kind of experience and like you almost willed this thing to happen, it seems like, do you take that and

[05:13] Josh Bonhotal: do it again? In some ways, yes. I think the thing that I realized out of that was, well, two things, one, and this may be semantics, but even as a little third grader, when I wrote that letter, to me, it wasn’t a goal.

[05:29] Josh Bonhotal: And in my mind, it was never a goal. It was a declaration. Like, this is what I will do. I am going to do this. That’s probably the little bit of nuance of even just how I think about goals myself. And even with, you know, athletes I’ve coached, I’ve coached countless athletes who’ve been immensely successful, Olympic gold medalists, NBA MVP.

[05:51] Josh Bonhotal: And even with them, I never talked to them about goals necessarily, because to me, it was more about, it’s a declaration and that’s just what it is. But anyways. You know, to reach something like that at 22, which was my lifelong dream. I think it was very fortunate for me because it allowed me to realize as well, that it’s important to keep my focus on the journey.

[06:21] Josh Bonhotal: And not the destination. And, and I think it’s easy, especially the more ambitious you are. And you see this a lot in sports. It’s easy to get yourself lost pursuing this goal or this pinnacle, win a championship, be the MVP, make it to the Olympics, whatever it might be. And for the rest of us in our life, it’s.

[06:41] Josh Bonhotal: That certain job or make this amount of money or buy this house or whatever it is. And I think what you realize is if you focus on the destination when you get there, oftentimes it’ll be quite empty if that’s all that it was about for you because you sort of get there. And I actually listened to a clip of Billy Donovan.

[07:04] Josh Bonhotal: Yesterday, coincidentally, somehow it came up. They were asking him about winning the two championships back to back for Florida basketball back in the early two thousands. And he said, after they won the second championship was the most depressed he had ever been in his entire life, because up to that point.

[07:24] Josh Bonhotal: Everything that he did his whole life and his whole approach was about winning a championship. And the thing that he said was, especially off of that second one, he sort of looked at it and he was like, I’ve reached this goal. In fact, I’ve done it now back to back. And it’s not changed my life in any way.

[07:41] Josh Bonhotal: And you sort of look at it and go not to downplay the accomplishment. You kind of go like, this is it, you know? And he even said, he was like, yeah, like now next to my name, it says two time national champion champion, but that’s it other than that, there was a parade a week later, everyone moves on about their life.

[08:00] Josh Bonhotal: And so for me, what I’ve realized to get back to your original question. Is it led me to seek out what is my purpose? Rather than what is the destination. And I think there’ll be multiple destinations along the way as you know, I’ve been fortunate to have up to this point, but by finding my purpose, which for me is to inspire and create opportunities for as many people as I possibly can.

[08:29] Josh Bonhotal: So it’s a, it’s a very broad sort of statement, but by knowing that is my purpose, it allows me to Focus my energies and especially as I make decisions in terms of. What to say yes to and what to say no to, it makes it very clear. And, and as it relates to, you know, I’ve now gone through, call it three in some ways, maybe even four evolutions of my career, the most recent two evolutions where I’ve kind of gotten into the entrepreneurship side and investing, having that as like the vision out in the world has helped me make these.

[09:11] Josh Bonhotal: Otherwise, like really difficult decisions and take some pretty big risks because when I looked at it, I realized that by saying yes to this. It allows me to move in pursuit of that purpose. It allows me to at least have the opportunity to grow a much larger platform to help even more people, you know, and, and create even more and bigger opportunities.

[09:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Quick interruption. Hey, if you like what you’re hearing, be sure to get the notes, quotes, and links in the action plan from this episode. Just go to Jim Herschel, jr. com slash action. That’s Jim Herschel, jr. com slash action to get your free copy of the action plan. Now back to the show. So that purpose, identifying that purpose brings you clarity and allows you to say yes to the right things, no to the things that are just distractions.

[10:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Is that right?

[10:06] Josh Bonhotal: Yeah, absolutely. Did

[10:08] Jim Harshaw Jr.: you do anything for that purpose? I mean, is that something that just kind of came to you or evolved? Or I mean, is that something you sat down with a coach and worked on? I mean, how did that come to you? I mean, it sounds like it’s something that really drives you. Yeah,

[10:20] Josh Bonhotal: I think for me, it really happened very organically, but I do think there were like a lot of forces along the way.

[10:29] Josh Bonhotal: Guiding me in that direction to find it without me even knowing necessarily that that’s what I was looking for or searching. And I think for me, it started with, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have absolute world class mentors along the way. And so even like going back to that young kid and through late high school, early college, the thing that I did to pursue this dream of.

[10:56] Josh Bonhotal: Playing and then ultimately working for the bulls and making that come to fruition is I started to study who are people in those positions, who are the people at the very top and just reach out to those people, seek those people. And I was fortunate, you know, some of them actually. Responded to my outreaches and took the time with me.

[11:17] Josh Bonhotal: And when I had those opportunities, I tried to latch on to good people who, who I could learn from, who could, you know, kind of mentor and guide me along the way. And so, you know, I think the thing for me, like I just turned 40. So like, you know, I have some wisdom now, but a lot of it probably took, was happening over a period of call it 10 years, like from 20 to 30 in particular.

[11:42] Josh Bonhotal: Where now I look back and realize there were conversations I had with these mentors where they were like pushing me in this direction to find and identify my purpose and you know, all of that, where I may not have otherwise realized it’s advice that I give. Now, if I could give my advice to myself 10 years ago, 20 years ago, how I think about it and it, you know, for me, it, it, it happened by seeking out the very best mentors who also are just like great human beings, but also by like.

[12:19] Josh Bonhotal: Taking risks and putting myself out there to sample a lot of different things and give myself exposure to a lot of different experiences. And it’s something that again, I sort of did organically. And then along the way, later on, I sort of learned the value in it by reading books like range, uh, which David Epstein wrote really good book.

[12:43] Josh Bonhotal: Where it actually made sense of a lot of the things that I’d been doing for 10 to 15 years that I didn’t even know that I was doing. Like David talks about that of like, you know, you kind of have the choice, especially if you want to be world class at anything. You can go very, very deep and try to be, you know, top 1 percent in the world at one thing, and there’s people who do that.

[13:08] Josh Bonhotal: That’s incredibly difficult to do, or you can kind of sample across multiple things, and if you can kind of, and I’m paraphrasing some of the things that I learned from David and some other mentors, but if you can. Sample multiple things and become even just like top 25 percent in the world across, call it three things when you put those three things together, that puts you in a position where now, rather than being the best at what you do, you’re the only one who does it.

[13:40] Josh Bonhotal: And that was something I was kind of like naturally doing along the way. I think largely just. Out of my own pursuit of just excellence of how can I be better just myself, my own development. How can I be better as a coach, better for my athletes? And then where my curiosity led me, where I have this like curiosity to a point where rather than going that last 25 percent to be the top 1 percent in something.

[14:09] Josh Bonhotal: I almost get bored. Cause I’m like, well, I’m more or less know this thing. Now I’m curious to, to learn the next thing. So I didn’t even know I was doing it. And then all of a sudden looking back, I’m like, Oh, I was kind of following the blueprint of what David Epstein talks about in range or Robert Green talks about in the book mastery.

[14:28] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You’ve worked with Olympic gold medalists, you’ve worked with NBA MVPs. What’s the difference between the guys who are good and the ones who are elite in great, what separates the good from the great that you’ve seen in

[14:45] Josh Bonhotal: athletics? The one thing that I cannot gloss over in this answer is there’s just a level of talent, like to be the best in the world.

[14:56] Josh Bonhotal: You have to have this level of insane talent. And I think oftentimes that gets glossed over in this answer.

[15:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Sure. Everybody wants to say hard work and that sort of thing, but that’s expected. You can work

[15:10] Josh Bonhotal: as hard as you want. If you don’t have the talent, you know, it’s kind of like me trying to play for the bulls.

[15:16] Josh Bonhotal: I mean, actually, even when I was with the bulls. There were players on our team that arguably I worked harder than just cause I was crazy. I’d spend six hours a day in the, in the gym. That didn’t change the fact I had nowhere near the talent than they did. So you can’t get past that one. But when it comes to.

[15:34] Josh Bonhotal: The people who have the talent and what separates good, great, and elite best in the world. I do think there’s a certain mindset, but in particular, what I’ve found is they focus on what they control and they’ve learned to, and this is who I’ve learned this from is focusing on the journey over the destination.

[15:58] Josh Bonhotal: So David Mediah, who I worked with, who won. Olympic gold medal right before I worked with him, actually 2012 London Olympics. He won, he won the gold medal. His story to me was quite powerful in my own journey. He was this elite prodigy diver from the time he was probably five or six years old, he was always sort of destined, so to speak, to go to the Olympics.

[16:23] Josh Bonhotal: And that became his identity. That became like what. It was all about for him and he actually made the Olympics in 2008 when he was a teenager, but by his account, he failed massively. Like he didn’t even get out of the qualifying round. And he actually went into this deep dark depression out of it because that was, that was it for him.

[16:49] Josh Bonhotal: And the difference between 2008 and 2012, when he won gold was as he sort of found a higher purpose, which for him, it was his faith in his family. He learned to focus on the process on the journey. And what to me is just so fascinating was actually. So in 2012, when he won at the time, probably even still today, Chinese divers absolutely dominate that sport.

[17:17] Josh Bonhotal: Probably unlike any group in any sport in the world at the time, I don’t think any diver had ever beaten a Chinese diver in like four or five years in any event, men or women. So David was like the first person to beat a Chinese diver in several years. He had to absolutely nail his very last dive. In order to win, he ended up winning by maybe a 10th of a point, very few, less than a full point.

[17:45] Josh Bonhotal: He didn’t even know what his overall score was going into that last dive, nor what he needed to have, nor anyone else in the field, what they had, because it didn’t matter. It didn’t affect what he had to do. You know, all he had to do was focus on. His process and the work that he’d put in over the years and years and years and the thousands, you know, millions of reps probably.

[18:12] Josh Bonhotal: And so he just walked up to that platform, focused on what he could control and absolutely nailed that dive. And he talks about too, the thing that he realized is like. Even if he would have just smacked on that dive and been a laughingstock, his family still loves him. He’s got his wife, he’s got his kids, the people that matter don’t care.

[18:33] Josh Bonhotal: He’s already won, you know? And I think that was the same type of thing that I always saw with Derek, who won the MVP was no matter how high he got, no matter how low, like if people said he was the greatest thing ever, or, you know, talking heads now all of a sudden say he’s terrible. He just focused on himself and who around him matters and what he could control.

[18:55] Josh Bonhotal: And, you know, I think if anything, those people, when it is going really well or really bad, they actually dial up the things that you can control. And like Kobe Bryant, somebody that’s. Infamous for that is honestly probably the more people that were elevating Kobe to this throne, the more he was like, I got to step my game up.

[19:18] Josh Bonhotal: I got to work even more because now there’s more people coming for my position, but yeah, I think it’s just, they have this ability to just stay here through any of the noise. Yeah.

[19:30] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. Fascinating. All right. You’ve talked about five critical elements. He said the next breakthrough in longevity and health span will happen by redefining the five critical elements.

[19:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Can you talk about those five critical elements for the listener, outline what those are and how those relate to their own wellbeing, their performance. Because listen, every day we’re going into a performance, right? Whether it’s performance on the court or the field, or we’re stepping into the workplace or even in our relationships or our own health and whatever sort of fitness aspirations we might have.

[20:07] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Talk about those critical five elements.

[20:09] Josh Bonhotal: Yeah. So, you know, it really comes down to how we move, how we eat, how we sleep, how we manage our stress, and then the fifth one is. Largely community. It’s also like you could put a five, a five B it’s community and, and having a strong social network support system.

[20:27] Josh Bonhotal: It’s also how we work just because so much of our day and our lives is spent there, and that can be a big driver of. Our community, it can also be a big driver of our stresses. And so at TXB, you know, that’s a big area of focus for us is investing in those areas and kind of the why, why, you know, we got there and why we look at that space goes back in many ways also to the core thesis of why future was started and with future.

[21:00] Josh Bonhotal: And now at TXB, what we sort of look at and what we’re trying to solve for is. This really health crisis that we have, not just in our country, but even globally. And when you look at it, 80 percent of our population will one day die of some type of chronic condition that really in many ways could otherwise.

[21:24] Josh Bonhotal: Be prevented or at the very least probably delayed. Honestly, 80 plus percent of us really struggle to manage our day to day health and, and the factors that impact the length of our lives and, and also the quality of our lives are those five things, how we move, how we eat, how we sleep, how we manage our stress.

[21:44] Josh Bonhotal: And community, especially if you look at the flip side of that, the risk factor of loneliness in terms of our mortality has been shown to be the equivalent of smoking like 14 or 15 cigarettes per day, seven days a week. I mean, it’s pretty alarming. And so, you know, even going back to. Me joining future five, six years ago, what kind of spoke to me and compels me was when you look at it, it’s like, these things are very much within our control.

[22:18] Josh Bonhotal: In fact, it’s not that complicated or at least it doesn’t need to be. I think there’s. A lot of forces out there that are trying to make it complicated. But, but the biggest thing is, you know, how healthcare has evolved and, and necessarily so by the way, like we went through a period where like you get sick and that’s it.

[22:36] Josh Bonhotal: Like you’re, you know, if you talk about going way back, hundreds, thousands of years, and then over the last call it a hundred years or so healthcare has come in to solve that problem. By now, when you get sick, we can probably, in most cases, extend that sickness. So you’re extending the years that we have, but you’re not necessarily extending the quality of those years.

[22:57] Josh Bonhotal: In some cases you are, but the larger problem is all of these things. Something could have and should have been done about that long before it got to this point where you are sick, you are obese, you have diabetes, you have heart, you know, whatever it is. Those are all lifestyle factors. And so for us with TXV, that’s what we look for is, you know, how can we invest in the best companies and the best technologies that are building around what can create better access, you know, and really promote in many cases, it’s, it’s habits, it’s behavior change, it’s awareness around those factors.

[23:37] Josh Bonhotal: Making it easier, making it more accessible. And, you know, then that kind of starts to expand into, you know, preemptive care and that crossover between what we call human performance and, you know, your primary care and, and what that can and should look like in terms of now being preemptive and catching things.

[24:00] Josh Bonhotal: Now, if there is a problem instead of 10 years later, when it’s a really big problem.

[24:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So let’s talk about for the listener who wants to learn, what do I need to pay attention to from my life and my day to day in terms of how we move, how we eat, sleep, manage stress and work. Any tips? I mean, I know you’re not necessarily doing these things, but you’re investing in companies who are improving these things.

[24:22] Jim Harshaw Jr.: What tips do you have? Can you give, share some, maybe one or two things in each of those categories? They’re sort of high level things that the listener can do and take with them to improve their longevity and healthspan for

[24:35] Josh Bonhotal: me, I tried, I tried to make it as simple as possible because I think of like the 80 percent because the other part of that 80 percent equation is.

[24:45] Josh Bonhotal: 80 percent of our population is not active enough. If at all, I mean, literally four out of five people straight up. They’re not like, they’re not even really going for walks much less doing cardio or lifting weights or whatever it might be. And so. I think at the most basic level, it’s sort of just start.

[25:07] Jim Harshaw Jr.: This is for number one. This is for move and we’ll go one by one through each of these. So number one move you’re saying, and a lot of my listeners are already, have already started. They’re, they’re doing stuff. I mean, so it’s, so you’re saying just start something and it doesn’t have to be overthought. It doesn’t have to be okay.

[25:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You have to do CrossFit certain days. You have to do this amount of this and that amount of that. Like there’s, there’s probably some parameters out there, but I mean,

[25:25] Josh Bonhotal: yeah, start with what you know, you’ll do. And find what you enjoy. I’m big on move every single day. It doesn’t mean you have to do like an hour long, crazy, intensive workout.

[25:37] Josh Bonhotal: I’ve actually, today will be the 1, 397th consecutive day that I’ve worked out. And people think it’s crazy, but many of these days, it’s been like 15 minutes of some type of circuit, or, you know, maybe I do. Some type of mobility and sort of flush. So you can utilize movement to actually drive recovery.

[26:03] Josh Bonhotal: It’s all stress, but it doesn’t have to be the same stress. And so whatever that means for you and the level you’re at, it could just be. Go for a 20, 30 minute walk on a day that you’re not lifting weights or you’re not doing cardio, but do something every single day to be active in terms of nutrition.

[26:23] Josh Bonhotal: Nutrition is something that. Is almost treated like real religion. Like we get into these arguments of, you know, what you should and shouldn’t eat. And, and I think it’s a lot simpler than that, especially when you study different populations who’ve been very successful with their nutrition, you see some will be very high fat, some will be high protein, carbs.

[26:46] Josh Bonhotal: It’s all over the place. And so what I think that we find. Is it actually mostly doesn’t matter so long as you’re eating whole foods, like you’re eating things that were once alive. I always say eat things that at some point they ran, swam, flew, or grew. You know, it’s, it’s real food. It’s whole food.

[27:06] Josh Bonhotal: There’s not an ingredient list. Eat mostly that eat enough calories to meet your energy demands. Not too many, not too little, and you kind of find what works for you. And most people don’t eat enough protein, eat enough protein to promote, you know, lean, lean muscle mass. And then around sleep prioritizes.

[27:27] Josh Bonhotal: But even as I’m going down this line, it’s kind of a virtuous cycle. I’m big on movement being the catalyst, but I think the more you move, now you become more conscious and more intentional about what you eat. Because you’ve been moving, you’ve been acting. There’s a lot of science that it helps support your willpower and prevent against your sort of decision fatigue, which oftentimes is the thing where we intend to eat healthy, but instead we go, I’m tired, screw it.

[27:54] Josh Bonhotal: I’ll just door dash a pizza. So it helps that. And then when you have those two things together, it actually is helping with your ability to fall asleep quicker, stay asleep, but prioritize sleep. Try to, to the best you can, you know, have a pretty regular sleep schedule, but really, you know, at least call it seven to nine hours at night.

[28:18] Josh Bonhotal: And then the last piece is stress and they’re all interrelated. And for stress to me. Is really largely about doing things that promote you being mindful. So whatever it is for you, a lot of people think of like meditation and they’re almost scared off by it because it’s like, I got to sit cross legged and, you know, hum, but you don’t have to do that if that works for you.

[28:40] Josh Bonhotal: Great. If not, you can journal, you can read, you can cook. If you enjoy cooking, cook, but be mindful as you’re doing it, go for a walk and like. Listen and watch the leaves kind of breeze and be mindful as you’re doing it. The more you can bring yourself back to the present moment is the best way I see in terms of really simplifying the topic.

[29:06] Josh Bonhotal: That is going to help you sort of manage your stress levels. And then the last piece is what is your social output? Look at the people that you’re surrounding yourself with and are they a faucet or are they a drain? Who are the people that when you spend time with you get energized, you can’t get enough time around them and their positive influences on your life.

[29:28] Josh Bonhotal: Try to seek out those people. And the really hard other side of that is. The people where you come away and you’re just drained and they make you feel negative and down, realize that’s having a downstream effect on everything else, your stress, your sleep, you know what you eat and you have to, no matter who it is, you got to start to pull yourself away from them.

[29:49] Josh Bonhotal: So, and then like, once you get those basics down, now you can start to chase. Some of the complexity, but like don’t chase the complexity before you just get the basics 80

[30:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: 20 rule, right? Yeah, 20 percent of your efforts will give you 80 percent of your results. Yeah. So what kind of habits or routines do you have Josh?

[30:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I mean certainly, you know 1, 397 days is that I get that number, right? Yeah. Yeah 1, 397 workouts in a row days in a row working out It sounds like a habit or a routine you do by now.

[30:22] Josh Bonhotal: Yep. Yep.

[30:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Anything else that you do in terms of, you know, maybe morning routines or things you do at work that help you be productive, focused, stay balanced?

[30:34] Josh Bonhotal: So every morning I’ll typically do either a cold tub or a cold shower. And honestly, for me, it’s less about even like diving into the science of Whether or not, and how much this might be driving a physiological response more for me, and even the workout streak too, it’s a mindset for me. It’s something I never want to do.

[30:58] Josh Bonhotal: And it’s really hard to get yourself to do it. It sucks. No matter how many times you do it, like you don’t get used to it, like being cold just sucks. And so to me, there’s something about that of just like. Starting my day, knowing that I’ve done something that really sucks, I didn’t want to do, and frankly, not that many other people would do, I just think it gives me this like feeling of accomplishment early in the day and almost this like sense of confidence or swagger that any other hard thing that comes up, like I do hard things.

[31:32] Josh Bonhotal: Like I’m the type of person who does hard things. And so that becomes my identity. So I think that’s, that’s a big one for me. Off of that, I try, the big thing I try to do is give myself space to start my day. So whenever my first like meeting is or whenever I truly have to be on for work at a minimum I’m going to get up two hours before that ideally i’m going to try and get up even three hours before that Whatever that time is Just so I can have that space to go into my day, because I, I believe that is a big part of why all of us are so out of whack with the cortisol levels and stress responses that we have.

[32:13] Josh Bonhotal: Most of us set our alarm to the very last minute before we have to get up, before we have to fly in the shower, before we have to drive to work or like hop on a zoom call. And so like the very first thing you experience is. Oh, shoot. I’m going to be late cortisol through the roof and you hop on this meeting.

[32:29] Josh Bonhotal: You’re not prepared at all. And so, you know, I think put yourself in the best position to succeed, give yourself that space to start your day. So for me, it allows me to do that cold tub, a hard thing. Then it allows me to go and journal. I have a journal. I’ve been journaling for probably 10 years now. Some days I’ll write 10 pages in there.

[32:49] Josh Bonhotal: Other days, it might be two lines. It’s just, I kind of go wherever the pen takes me. Let me, let me ask you

[32:54] Jim Harshaw Jr.: real quick. I know a lot of my clients struggle with the journaling thing. They say, what do I journal? What do I write? Like they have a hard time getting started. Do you write, when you say you just go where the pen takes you, what’s your first thought?

[33:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I mean, a friend of mine gave me this, this piece of advice and I’ll let you let you kind of fill in the gaps around this, but if you’re stuck, just write one thing that’s true. One thing that is true and it just gets your pen moving. It gets you moving and then you can, you flow from there. What gets you moving?

[33:20] Josh Bonhotal: Why do you start? I agree with that. And one it’s, it’s a habit that compounds. So when you start, it feels really weird. It feels very time consuming. You almost like, let me get this over. And to your point, why you don’t start, cause you’re like, I don’t know what to write about. I think the very first time I even started journaling and I forget if I read this or somebody told me this.

[33:44] Josh Bonhotal: I literally just started writing like I have no idea what to write about. This is weird. Like I was writing this out and oddly enough, I don’t know how to describe it. I don’t know if you’ve experienced this, but then you just start going and then it turns into something at the end. But the funniest thing and the most powerful thing is I now have the benefit of periodically, it’s just.

[34:08] Josh Bonhotal: Fun for me to like, go back to old journals 10 years ago, five years ago. Like, what was I thinking on this random day? And there’s a lot of things of where I am now, where, you know, 10 years later, where I’ll even say all the time, I’m like, Oh, I never could have imagined. I’d be in this role. And I go back to an old journal entry and I’m like, Holy crap.

[34:29] Josh Bonhotal: I haven’t actually spoke about, like I’ve written about this, like one thing for me. And I kind of skipped over in the story, but. At the moment when I got started getting recruited for future and go build this tech company, I had actually made up my mind that I was going to go to law school to pursue becoming a NBA GM or team president.

[34:49] Josh Bonhotal: I’d sort of that same like third grade mentality in 15 years. What could I do? Anything’s possible. And so I’d taken LSAT, I had seven different law schools. I’d gotten accepted to, I had it all lined up. I was going to whatever city I went to law school, I was going to work in the front office for that team because I off my existing relationships, um, I was going to be able to do that.

[35:11] Josh Bonhotal: And I remember even at the time and when I remember it, I go, Oh yeah, I came up with this idea. The start of my last year at Purdue, like reading this book about Theo Epstein and sort of learning his journey. Well, I went back and looked at some old journal articles. I had journal articles from like four or five years before that, basically saying, why couldn’t I be the GM?

[35:34] Josh Bonhotal: And here’s why I need to be a GM. And here’s what I would do when I was a G like, I didn’t even remember that. So you’re almost getting these like subconscious thoughts out of your mind. But then a lot of it, I’m a big believer of. You know, regardless of, of your faith, whether you are very religious, a little, not at all, I’m a big believer in like, there’s just.

[35:56] Josh Bonhotal: Some power is out there with the universe. It’s got like, I don’t know, but I think the more you put it out there, whether you write it, you think it, you speak it in is kind of something I steal from the alchemist, but the universe conspires to work in your favor. And so one of the reasons I love journaling is because.

[36:14] Josh Bonhotal: I can write down these crazy ideas and all this, but the more now I’m writing it, I’m thinking it, you start to attract that. You start to put that energy out and it’s hard to explain, but your path just starts to go in that direction.

[36:30] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Totally agree. You know, it gets you thinking that direction. It gets you recognizing opportunities that you might’ve seen as obstacles before.

[36:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It seems to the universe seems to conspire for you when you put it out there. So. Josh, love it. I love the habits, love the routines, love learning from you and your story and your journey for the listener who’s sitting there and is inspired and wants to take action on what you’ve something you’ve shared today.

[36:54] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Can you think of an action item or two that you might recommend for the listener who, who wants to benefit from what you shared here today and do something in their life about it?

[37:03] Josh Bonhotal: I would say, you know, whatever it is, start small, take the first step today. Like the thing that lives with me is even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and where people stop is you see the gap from where you are to where you think or you need to be or want to be.

[37:21] Josh Bonhotal: And it’s, it’s so large, it seems daunting, but the only way that you get there is by taking that first step. to your question. Rather than two things, I would just focus on one. So maybe it’s if you want to move more, take the first step, go do a 10 minute workout, 10 minute jog, whatever it is. If it’s, you want a journal, write one sentence in a journal today, whatever it is.

[37:46] Josh Bonhotal: Just take the first step, one sentence, jog around the block. I mean, make it small and compounding, I always say is the eighth wonder of the world. Just make it small and do it every day and give it time. And with time, you’ll look back a year from now and you’ll be like, holy crap, it’s remarkable how far I’ve come.

[38:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Great advice, Josh. I appreciate it for the listener who wants to find you, follow you, where can they track you down and follow your career and your social

[38:17] Josh Bonhotal: media? Yeah. So I try to be really active on Twitter and LinkedIn. My Twitter is at Jay Bonasall, try to share a lot of kind of inspirational threads, videos, quotes from books I’m reading, things like that.

[38:31] Josh Bonhotal: Similar on LinkedIn. You can just find me at my name and then check us out at TXV. partners. We have a full white paper on. Our thesis around human performance and how we see what healthcare 3. 0 can and should look like. So if you’re interested to learn more, we have a lot of information on there as well.

[38:53] Josh Bonhotal: And feel free to DM me. I try to do my best to go through and respond to people there as well.

[39:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Excellent. Josh, thanks for making time to come on the

[39:03] Josh Bonhotal: show. No, thank you. It’s been great.

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