[00:00] What if I told you that the career you’ve dedicated decades to wasn’t your final destination, but it’s just the beginning in this episode, I’m sharing how you can flip the script on what it means to start over and transform your midlife crisis into a midlife renaissance.

[00:21] 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 Harshaw Jr. And today we’re talking about That second act making bold career moves at this point in your life, whether you’re in your forties, maybe your thirties, maybe your fifties, or who knows, even your sixties.

[00:46] And you’re thinking, is it too late for me to make a change for me to make a pivot? We’re going to explore this. We’re going to talk about the fears. We’re going to talk about the excitement. We’re going to talk about ultimately the satisfaction that comes from having a crystal clear plan and then taking action on it and finding success on the other side and reaching that goal.

[01:05] And if you’re standing there sort of feeling, you’re like at this crossroads of your life and you’re wondering, is it too late to embark on this new chapter? We’re going to explore why now might just be the right time for you. Okay. And we’re going to talk about seven steps. What are the seven things you need to do to think through this, to create the plan, and then to execute on the plan.

[01:27] To get there because I’ve helped a lot of people do exactly this. Exactly what we’re talking about today. A lot of our clients have gone through this. They show up to us and they’re thinking there’s something more. There’s something next I’ve gone through life and I’ve checked all these boxes. I’ve gotten the degree or degrees and jobs and multiple jobs and got promotions.

[01:51] And I have knowledge and wisdom and experience and network. But how do I take all of that and do something that’s even more fulfilling? You feel like there’s a next chapter for you. And so how do you uncover that? How do you get confidence that you’re clear on what that right next chapter is? Because listen, younger times in our lives, high school, college, early career, everything is very clear.

[02:13] There’s very clear next steps. You feel like you want to do graduate high school, you go to college, graduate college, you get your first job, you get your first job, you get the promotion, you get the promotion, you get the next promotion or move to the next company, you, you know, married kids, house, cars, there’s all these check boxes and then you reach a certain point and it’s like, okay, what’s next?

[02:34] Like I want that next exciting thing to chase. And how do I do that? Okay. So I’m going to give you seven steps. Number one is you have to first create the vision. Like what does that look like? And you’re saying, well, Jim, that’s the whole point is I don’t have the vision. I’m looking ahead and it’s just a foggy mess up there.

[02:53] Or there’s like 10 different avenues I can go down. I don’t know what those are. I don’t know what I want. So you have to start by simply identifying, okay, what is it that I love doing? Okay. What is it that I want in my life? And what is it that I don’t want in my life in my career? What kind of balance do I want to have?

[03:12] What kind of hours do I want to work? What kind of people do I want to work with? Doing this kind of work requires a productive pause. It requires stopping thinking. Not doing, not waking up tomorrow and just going back to work, doing the same thing tomorrow for this. No better reason. That’s what you did today.

[03:30] Or, you know, doing the same thing tomorrow or the next day for no better reason than that’s what you did the day before, like you can’t just keep doing that and expecting something to change, expecting some miracle to fall into your lap. You actually have to do the work. I’ve talked about this a hundred times before on this podcast, but if there’s such a thing as the secret to success, this is it.

[03:53] You have to hit the pause button to get clear. Ask yourself the hard questions, ask yourself, what is it that I actually want to create that vision? And listen, I’ll be honest with you. It’s hard to do by yourself. You can do it. You have to actually schedule it, you know, plan 30 minutes or an hour on your calendar where there’s just no distractions.

[04:14] You go to a coffee shop, you get into a, a totally different mindset in order to work on this. And it’s just hard. It’s hard to do by yourself. You can do it. You have to have the right questions. And some of those right questions are the ones I just gave to you. We’ll have those in the action plan. You can use that as a guide to go through this.

[04:31] You’re on the inside of the jar, trying to read the label, having somebody outside, helping you or asking you questions. You might want to get a friend to, to help you with this or your spouse, or you might want to do some thinking and writing on your own and then bring this to somebody else. Um, of course, this is what we do with our clients, but you’ve got to find somebody outside of you to do this with, and here’s the catch.

[04:54] Here’s the catch. You have to stop limiting what it could look like. Stop with the yeah, buts. Yeah, but can I replace my income? Yeah, but it’s too risky. Yeah, but I’ve got mortgage kids, all these financial commitments. Yeah, but you’ve got to stop all of those because if you don’t think it’s possible, I guarantee you.

[05:18] It is not possible for you if you don’t believe it is, but if you believe maybe just maybe it is possible, you will find a way it’s not. Can I, can I start my own business? Can I move to a job in a different industry? Can I get a, uh, a job in this career, in this industry that has better balance? Not can I, that is the wrong question.

[05:45] The question is. How can, when you start with how can I, it leads to a different result. It assumes there’s a way, and let me tell you, there’s a way because there’s someone else out in the world, probably hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands, or maybe even millions of them doing it and it’s possible.

[06:09] And they’ve made that change. They’ve made that transition. You’re thinking, yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but Stop with the, yeah, but do you have it? It’s too late. Yeah, but this, yeah, but no, it’s possible. Quick interruption. If you like what you’re hearing here and you want to learn how you can implement this into your life, just go to Jim Harshaw, jr.

[06:26] com slash apply to see how you can get a free one on one coaching session with me. That’s Jim Harshaw, jr. com slash apply. Now back to the show. We worked with a client named Matt years ago. And he was partner in a business. So he’s part owner of this business. And we went through this process and he realized I’m in the wrong thing.

[06:49] Like, I don’t even want to do this anymore. And he stopped doing that. It was a graphics design firm and started a. General contracting business where he’s flipping houses, doing renovations, and he’s overseeing all the work. He’s some days he has a hammer in his hand, but most days he doesn’t, he’s out, you know, managing jobs and managing the business and it’s much more fulfilling for him.

[07:13] He wanted to be outside moving, doing something totally different. And. His quote, actually exact words from him were, this has been life changing and it happened fast. It was almost instantaneous that things started to click. This is, I’m giving you the process that we took him through. All right. It starts with this work.

[07:30] Doesn’t just happen. It’s not going to happen unless you start doing this work. Okay. So that’s number one of seven. Number two, you got to create belief that you can actually. Achieve that vision. This is the mindset work. Like, can I replace my income without putting my family at risk? Yes, you can. You have to create, believe you actually actually have to believe that this is possible.

[07:52] And how do you do that? How do you do that? First of all, you can find other people who have done it. They live in your neighborhood, in your town, uh, they’re in your LinkedIn network. You can find those people. You can find them. You can look at their story. You can listen to my podcast episode and all the amazing stories I have of people who have transitioned in their lives and achieved amazing things.

[08:11] Like find those people, listen to those stories, go have coffee with them if you can track them down. I had to do this. Like my life really changed with this business whenever I actually started believing that it was possible. Like I, I created the plan and everything, but you know, I had the vision, but. I really, you know, deep down at a logical level, I believe, but at a deep down level, I really didn’t believe it was the mindset work that I had to do.

[08:34] Just like when I was wrestling, like I knew logically that I could be a national champion or an all American. I really didn’t believe it at a, at a deep sort of emotional level. And whenever you create that, that transition of that belief at an emotional level, that’s when things really start to happen.

[08:52] Listen, it’s simple. It’s simple and it’s, it’s actually easy. I was going to say it’s simple, but it’s not easy because there’s a lot of things that are simple, but not easy, like running a marathon, right? Simple run a lot of miles. Uh, it’s not easy, easy though, but this one’s easy. Visualize, visualize, visualize yourself on the other side.

[09:09] Once you create that vision, sit down, close your eyes and visualize, go back and listen to my Jack Canfield episode. It’s actually taken off on YouTube right now. It’s got thousands of views, many thousands of views, more than any other. My interviews on. Oh, from the YouTube channel. It’s a 40 minute interview on everything we’re talking about in this step, this step number two of mindset and in creating belief.

[09:31] So visualize like, how do you do that? You actually have to sit down. It might only take 30 seconds or a few minutes, but actually create the feeling in your body and you’ll actually create it. Feel your fingertips kind of tingle. You might feel like kind of energy going up and through your spine and kind of internally.

[09:45] Um, for me, it’s like that vagal nerve kind of inter internal and you’re in your, in your chest and abdomen. Like you’ll feel, actually feel that. And it’s a, it’s a really interesting feeling. It’s you changing your belief system. It’s actually. Physically happening inside of you and, uh, mantras or another one.

[10:01] Um, we’ve got this guy, a client of mine, his name’s Ryan Renfree. We call him Rennergy cause he’s just like a force of nature. This guy, he’s, he’s got this business called the super suit. His business is called hero gear shop. Hero gear is the name of his business. And he has this just incredibly powerful belief.

[10:21] He’s going to make this business happen. And he is, it’s bizarre. He’s actually gotten, he got a commitment from the UFC. It’s his first customer. Like this guy is a force of nature. It is happening because he believes not to mention he has a great product and a great vision and he has the belief and it’s all happening.

[10:39] So that’s number two, number one, create the vision. Number two, create a plan, a strategy for developing belief inside of you. Um, I’ll have the link to the Jack Canfield episode in the action plan. Number three. Prototype like test this out. You don’t have to figure it all out at once. Go back to episode 124.

[10:57] Again, we’ll have the link in the action plan for this. And we talk about prototyping with a Stanford design professor, but not about prototyping a product, but how to prototype in your life, right? This might mean. Talking to people, watching a YouTube video, shadowing a friend, having coffee with somebody who, you know, who is in that industry or is doing that thing, um, you might even use Google or chat GPT and try to think about what would that be like to make that transition, to have that new career and then ask it all the yeah, butts that are in your head and tell it to.

[11:30] Tell you why you’re wrong. So we had a guy named John in our program. I shouldn’t say, how do we still have a guy named John in our program? He’s been with us for, I don’t know, gosh, seven or eight years now. And when we started out working with him, there was a limiting belief that he couldn’t leave his job.

[11:48] He had a great job, but he was traveling a lot, going to China often. And. And wanted to find a way to get better balance in his life, but he kind of had these, you know, somewhat of golden handcuffs, right? It was a, it was a business that he had a stake in and he wanted to make a change for the betterment of his family and had some limiting beliefs around that.

[12:07] We had to help break down those limiting beliefs. And we did some prototyping and coached him to do some testing and trying things out and talking to people. And lo and behold, he made the transition. He made the transition. Now he’s in a much, much better place. Better position. So he made that transition and you can too through prototyping.

[12:23] Okay. So number one is vision. Number two is creating the belief. Number three is prototyping or testing. Number four is now it’s time to make a plan, like actually sit down, right out, step by step, just like you’re managing a project to make this happen. You got to make the plan. I had a mentor tell me whenever I was still working full time and running this business on the side, he said, Jim, you have to unscare yourself.

[12:48] You have to unscare yourself. You’ve got to look at the numbers, write down the plan, create a plan to make this happen. And I did. And it was just a few months after that, whenever I finally quit my job and I’d been trying for, I don’t know, four or five years. And it was this idea of unscaring myself by creating a plan.

[13:06] And we’ll have a link again in the action plan for our, our, it’s gonna be a free download. It’s a Google sheet that you can use. It’s the same one that we use with our clients, and it’s an absolutely incredible tool that we’ve put years of work into kept honing and honing it. And you’re getting the most up to date version is such a cool, a cool, uh, tool and resource for you.

[13:25] So we’ll have that in the action plan, but we worked with a guy named Patrick and Patrick came to us and Wanted to change, wanted to make a change in his career. He lacked clarity. So we helped him get clarity on what the vision looks like. And then we helped him make a plan and he executed the plan. And within 90 days, 90 days, he had a totally different job, made a huge transition.

[13:46] All right. So that’s number four is to make your plan. Number one, create your vision. Number two, develop belief. Number three, prototype. Number four, make your plan. I’m giving you a template to do that. Number five. Create your team, create your team. You’re an athlete at some point when you’re an athlete, you have coaches, athletic trainers, you know, in college, I had nutritionists, sports psychologists, academic advisors, strength and conditioning coaches, on and on and on.

[14:13] You have to have this too. You have to have your team who’s on your team. It might be a financial advisor. Might be a coach. Well, it should be both of the, of those should be mentors, um, like minded people, Who are the other people who have done this that you can be around? Maybe use an organization you can sign up for, or something you can join to be around other like minded people, form your team, work with a guy named Sean, who was in a really high level position with a global company and wanted to move on and move up and within about nine months of following this plan, this process, he had Become a CEO and he’s still working with us now and, and he’s executing at a high level and a high pressure job and he’s, he’s crushing it, but we had to form his team.

[15:05] This was part of the plan for him, forming the team to make that jump, being around like minded people who raise the bar, raise the standard, push you, hold you accountable, et cetera. Athletes need that, but guess what? There’s a heck of a lot more at stake in your life right now. Then when you were competing as an athlete, right?

[15:23] It’s your family. It’s your life. It’s your livelihood form your team. That’s number five. All right. Number six, you’ve got to align other areas of your life to this as well. Other stakeholders, other areas of your life that support success. Just talk to a client here about a week or two ago, and, you know, he came to us really focused on sales, wanting to, to boost his, his, you know, increases sales and make more sales and move into a management position.

[15:51] He moved from 36th place in his company in terms of salesmen to fourth in one month. And he lost 14 pounds. Like there are other areas of your life that support success. Once you get your diet dialed in, you start working out more, get that in alignment that brings confidence, that brings productivity, it brings focus.

[16:15] It brings momentum, your, your relationships in your life. If you’re married, you making sure you’re having the date nights and getting that quality time together because that individual is a key stakeholder. In all of this, right? You want to take that next step. You want to make that bold move. You’ve got to have the support of your spouse or significant other or others in your life who, you know, this is your family and people who are close to you.

[16:41] You’ve got to have that area of your life in alignment as well. Relationships, fitness. And if you’re a person of faith, you can’t let this slip, trust God, get back to your faith, open the Bible. Or whatever faith that it is that you follow faith is a critical piece of this. That’s number six, getting the other areas of your life in alignment.

[17:02] All right. That’s number six. I’m going to roll through the first six here, and then we’re going to get into the last one, which is the most important one, the glue that holds us all together. Number one, create your vision. Number two, develop belief. You gotta have a plan and a system for that too. Number three, prototyping and testing.

[17:19] Number four, make your plan. Number five, form your team. Number six, align the other areas of your life as well. Here’s the key. Number seven. Guess what? The winds of change and adversity. Are coming for you, just like they’re coming for me and everybody else. That’s okay. Bring them on. You have a plan for follow through.

[17:45] You have to have that plan for when those things come back. When I was coaching wrestling, Lisa, uh, talked to my college wrestlers and say, Hey, listen, so, so we’ve got this goal. You set this goal. What are the things that could possibly derail you? And they’d say, well, I could get injured. Yep. You could get injured.

[18:01] Absolutely. What else could happen? Well, I could, you know, my girlfriend could break up with me or could get sick or whatever might happen. Could take a loss, the unexpected loss. Sure. All this stuff could happen. So we identify these things so that number one, we can hedge against them. And number two, so that we can actually be prepared whenever they happen to say, Oh, okay.

[18:21] I knew that this was a potential obstacle. And now that it’s here, I’m mentally prepared for it. It doesn’t totally derail you because you’re going, okay, I knew something like this could happen. This is okay. This is part of the journey. This is part of the plan. You will face setbacks, obstacles, self doubt.

[18:41] What are you going to do? Safeguards have you put in place. What belief system do you have in place knowing that you can get over this, right? Like when I was wrestling, you know, I had coaches and teammates and a vision, and therefore I could, I could endure these failures and injuries and go from breaking up with me and more failures and academic challenges, all of that.

[19:02] Like you have to follow through despite all of that. But you got to have all seven of these things in place, all seven. Number one, vision. Number two, belief. Number three, prototyping. Number four, make a plan. Number five, form your team. Number six, align the other areas of your life. Number seven, follow through.

[19:21] You’ve got to sit down and actually do this. Now, no one’s going to do your pushups for you. You have to do this. No, one’s coming to save you. You have to take action on this yourself. And you shouldn’t do it alone. You can do it with us. You can hire a coach, another coach. You can work with somebody, get somebody who is outside of your head to help guide you through this.

[19:45] That’s how success works. You can make this change. You’re at a point in your life where you’ve got experience, wisdom, knowledge, ability, capability. Do something with it. You can move to that next step. You can find the fulfillment and the balance that you want. Make the kind of money that you want. It’s all possible.

[20:02] I did it. Through all the failure, setbacks, self doubt that I had, I did it. This is the plan and you can do it to take action.

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