[00:00] Tim Lynch: I look at either a calendar with Xs on it all in a row or a spreadsheet like we had with dots on it all in a row. It shows consistency. I think to me, that’s just as good as a trophy when you’re tracking, you have a scorecard and chose me that I’m consistent with myself. I made a promise to myself that I was gonna complete this challenge and I did it.

[00:23] Jim Harshaw: 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’m bringing you an episode. On our annual challenge that we run inside of my community. This past year, we actually did it publicly, and I published an episode back in September about this, where anybody could join.

[00:48] And so what do I mean by a challenge in public? Challenge and all that good stuff. Well, you’ve heard of 75 Hard or Whole 30 Exodus 90. There’s a lot of these challenges out there, and they’re great because they are a clear set of short-term commitments with specific rules that you’re doing and maybe or maybe not.

[01:10] There are other people participating with you maybe. Can do this with a friend or something like that. But here’s the challenge with those. Number one, a lot of times you don’t have a community around you doing this at the same time. Sometimes you do or maybe you do, like I said, do it with a friend, but a lot of times real challenge, A lot of times they’re not exactly what you need.

[01:27] Maybe you’re dialed in in one area and for example, you’re already working out a lot and, uh, 75 hard has, you gotta work out twice a day and you’re like, well, I don’t really need to work out, you know, the thing I need to do is, is be more present with my kids. Right? That’s maybe the higher priority or I’ve got to get myself to.

[01:43] Pick up the phone and do those sales calls or that outreach for my business, or whatever the case might be, right? There’s certain things that you’re like, I really need to do these, and they’re not part of these pre-cooked challenges, so what about me? What about creating something specifically for me?

[01:57] That’s what the custom on the path October challenge is that I run every year. Now we run this in October. It doesn’t really matter what time of year that you do this. The best time of year for you to do it is right now, today starting. With this episode and what I’m gonna walk you through right next here are conversations with my clients, seven of them, who all opted into the challenge.

[02:19] It’s not required, not everybody does it and but whoever wants to do it, they can opt in and we have a public tracker and you know, every day if. You’ve hit yours because you’re clicking a checkbox. You can see who else, who did or didn’t do theirs. So there’s a lot of accountability that this is public and it’s shared, and seven of them crushed it and went 30 for 30.

[02:39] So what I’m bringing you today is a short conversation with each of them on what their challenge items were. Why they selected them, the benefits to selecting those items, and then advice for you. We can’t really include the full length of all these, so I’m really trimming these down just to give you the best stuff and make this as succinct as possible.

[03:01] You can walk away from listening to this episode knowing what are challenge ideas that I’m going to incorporate? How do I best set myself up for success? Then what’s next? Right? How do you really launch this thing and make this work for you? Alright, so buckle up, get ready for a great episode. Send this to a friend and say, Hey, let’s do a challenge.

[03:22] Let’s come up with the challenge. We’re gonna do it together. So share this episode with a friend and make sure you grab the action plan because it’s gonna have all the notes and quotes and key things that you really need to implement your own challenge. So go to jim harrow jr.com/. Action, and you can download the action plan.

[03:39] If you’re on my email list, I just send that action plan to you anytime one of these episodes comes out. So it just lands in your inbox. You don’t have to do anything at all. And lastly, if you want to really have an AI assistant help you create your challenge, go to coach gym ai.com. That’s coach gym ai.com.

[03:56] We’ll have that in the action plan and have a conversation with me, the virtual, uh, AI robot version of me. Around how you can create your own challenge. All right, here we go. Let’s get into it. My interviews with the On the Path October Challenge winners. Let’s do it. Let’s first talk about who you are, who is Ben Scher.

[04:14] Tell us who you are and give us quick intro.

[04:16] Ben Scherz: My name is Ben Scherz. I live in Park City, Utah, and I’ve been part of RYP for. Four months now. I’m a dad of four daughters and I work in the education sector supporting literacy.

[04:32] Jim Harshaw: And so let’s talk about your challenge. So you crushed it. You went 30 for 30. Tell us about the items that you’ve selected and why you chose those.

[04:41] Ben Scherz: So what I selected for the challenge was drinking 32 ounces of water in the morning, right when I wake up before I eat, stretching for 15 minutes every day, usually in the evening, and then journaling for 15 minutes in the evening. And I got something different out of each one of those. So first one, drinking water every morning.

[05:03] I found that it changed my digestion. It also changed my cravings for the day, right when I ate, how much I ate. Desire for sweets and my whole digestive system started working a little bit better, right? More regularly, and I didn’t want sweets as much. Actually, it reduced my craving for sweets, which was really important to me.

[05:19] So that was drinking water, the second one, stretching every day. I chose that one because I have been tight. My whole life, especially my, my hips and my hamstrings and trying to loosen those up. I’ve tried yoga, I’ve tried all these different things and really what I figured it came down to was consistency.

[05:35] So the 30 for 30 challenge was an opportunity for me to put that to the test, and indeed it worked, right? I started out on the first day, you know, if I was standing up. Trying to bend down, touch my nose. I could barely get my fingertips past my knees. I developed a routine of stretching that would really do my whole body, and so completely changed my level of comfortability in my body and kind of how limber I am and how I feel.

[06:01] Jim Harshaw: So the first two were physical, right? One was sort of nutritional diet, almost kind of thing, intake, you know, water and the second one, stretching. That’s a physical one. And I feel like those have so much of an impact on just how we feel throughout the day. Our focus, our ability to be consistent and focus and stay on task and just, just, they keep our mind right, even though it’s, uh, these are, these are physical things.

[06:26] Ben Scherz: Yeah, absolutely. And they also, I could see the progress.

[06:29] Jim Harshaw: And how about the journaling? How was that?

[06:31] Ben Scherz: So the journaling was totally different because that’s really about mindset and that’s why I chose it. Part of the ROYP process was identifying the values that I wanted to anchor my daily activities in.

[06:42] And so I had a very specific journaling process. I would identify three wins from the day that that I had, and then I would identify three wins for tomorrow, which was really powerful ’cause it got my mindset into expect. To win. Like I, I would wake up in the morning and I’d be like, oh, here’s three things that are gonna work out today.

[07:00] It already put me in a positive mindset from the night before.

[07:04] Jim Harshaw: Yeah. So you were already thinking about what are my wins gonna be tomorrow?

[07:07] Ben Scherz: Yeah. And that’s a powerful shift, right? Instead of waking up and thinking about, oh, what’s in my to-do list? What’s in my inbox? What am I gonna do? It was, what are the three things that I want to get most out of the day?

[07:19] And I didn’t always hit. Them. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t. But just having that as an approach to the day was powerful. ’cause even when things came up, it was from a winning perspective. Oh yeah, I can take care of that, no problem. And then the next part of my journaling was identifying my values and journaling what I did during the day that met each of those values.

[07:40] And so I got to benchmark every day. What are my actions and how are they aligned to my values?

[07:46] Jim Harshaw: Yeah, love that powerful, simple shift that. Impacts how you show up every day. So what advice do you have for somebody else, Ben? So for the listener who’s saying, I wanna do a challenge, I wanna create my own challenge, how does one make this work?

[08:00] Ben Scherz: The first thing I would say is do it with somebody. Find a pal, find a a partner so that you can celebrate with them, right? It’s not only about the accountability and that there’s somebody else that you’re doing it with, and that helps you kind of stay true or helped me stay true to doing it in the follow through.

[08:15] But when you follow through, then you’ve got somebody to celebrate High five, congratulate each other with, and that’s really helpful. The other thing I would say is do something that’s doable. Choose something that is a little bit of a stretch, but that you really think you can do. That’s what worked for me is I’ve wanted to be more flexible for all these years, choosing stretching for 15 minutes.

[08:33] I figured I could do that and I was able to follow through and I’ve been able to maintain it right since then, which is the really powerful thing. Is it? It was a habit shift. I mean, so that would be the final thing is maybe choosing something that you want to shift long term and leaning into that.

[08:48] Jim Harshaw: Yeah.

[08:49] That makes sense. Yeah. Dan, welcome back to the show. Third time you crush. On the path October every year. Good to have you back. Tell the listener a little bit about yourself.

[08:58] Dan Mocci: Yeah. I’m Dan Mocci. I am from Connecticut. Born and raised graduate of University of Hartford, also went to Yukon, a father of two girls, 15 and 11.

[09:06] Been here my whole life. I kind of operate in three different fields. So one is, uh, the construction field I work with. Private equity, uh, scaling large residential construction firms. In addition to that, I have some stake in insurance business, as it seems everyone in this part of the country does. And then lastly, of course, I work within the group here as one of your Pathfinder coaches, which is work I’m very proud to do.

[09:26] And I’ve been doing that with you for probably almost half a decade now.

[09:28] Jim Harshaw: So your challenge, you crushed it. Once again, you want 30 for 30 and extended it beyond that. But tell us, me and the listeners about your challenge, what items you selected this year and why you chose those.

[09:39] Dan Mocci: My challenges are always kind of nuanced.

[09:42] For instance, in this case, they’re always extensions of things that I’m already working on, but I kind of just look to level up. So I added 200 pushups to my daily pushup output, a hundred additional curls, a hundred extra side bends. I ensured that I journaled daily. Made sure that I had a daily connection with each of my children, and then
[10:00] made sure that each morning I stuck to my gratitude process.

[10:03] I have a process in the morning where I set my intentions daily and I go through multiple things that I’m grateful for before I hit the gym and really get started. And then lastly, I’m very dialed in on my KPIs, from everything to water intake, to alcohol intake, everything I put in my body. So I made sure daily that I was hitting my goals and monitoring my targets on both my food and alcohol and uh, water and intake.

[10:22] Jim Harshaw: Yep. Success leaves clues they say, and Dan does a productive pause every day and sets his intention for the day. What were the benefits, like? What were the benefits that you’ve experienced from those habits and routines?

[10:34] Dan Mocci: The physical benefits are always gonna come if you hit the accelerator on the stuff you’re already doing, and yet you add to your repertoire physically.

[10:41] Clarity piece from the journaling was evident, um, sticking to it, and my body just had an additional vitality by dialing in even more on the KPIs when it came to measuring. All the things that I just mentioned. In addition, I could feel the, the warmth from my children in making sure that I was, you know, spending that time with them daily.

[10:57] I travel a lot for business, so some of that time was either FaceTime over the phone, but making sure that I carved out something every single day for them. Certainly it continues to enhance our relationship. The benefit for me though, it’s more the to totality of opting into a challenge, one of my core values, which is such an important part of what we flush out with.

[11:14] In our Pathfinder community that I live by is challenge. So anytime we’re gonna throw a challenge out there, I’m gonna opt into it. ’cause I’m a guy who likes to be challenged. In addition to that, it’s just another way also to connect within our community, right?

[11:26] Jim Harshaw: Yeah. None of it is life changing on any given day.

[11:30] It’s this incremental, every day compound effect of the stacking, every day of doing these habits.

[11:37] Dan Mocci: A hundred percent. Jim, in, in 2025. This challenge couldn’t have come at a better time.

[11:42] Jim Harshaw: And for the listener, if you’re thinking, oh, well gosh, I gotta wait until October. And it’s like, no. Like whatever time you are listening to this, whenever you listen to this, now is the right time.

[11:50] Right now is the right time. Anytime of year you can find a good excuse to engage in this kind of thing. Like now is the best time.

[11:57] Dan Mocci: You’re a hundred percent right. I mean, listen to your point. You can launch in, in one of this is just the way you should be living every day anyway. If you need a catalyst to kind of.

[12:04] Offset some of the BS that you can’t control. That happens. It’s a great opportunity. Set up one of these challenges and don’t wait till October, just like you said.

[12:11] Jim Harshaw: What advice do you have for the listener who says, I wanna do this, I want to engage in a challenge, I wanna create a challenge for myself and do this.

[12:17] What advice do you have?

[12:19] Dan Mocci: My advice would be to find areas where. You are progressing, even if it’s minimally and try to level up in existing areas. If you’re already in the gym, add to the repertoire. If you’re already journaling, add to amount of times per week. You journal. If you have X amount of contacts with your kids or your spouse, your significant other, try to ratchet up that number.

[12:38] If you’re reading 10 pages a day, get it to 20. The point is, I would find stuff that you’re already doing and use this as an opportunity to be more stringent about doing it. And then also find ways to enhance it versus trying to reinvent the wheel and start challenging yourself in a list of things you may not even know that you know how to do and or are going to, like in worst case scenario, stick to.

[12:59] Simple way of putting it is find stuff you’re already doing and just use this as an opportunity to level up and get it done.

[13:06] Jim Harshaw: Brian, welcome to the show man. Why don’t you take a minute and introduce yourself for the audience, please?

[13:11] Brian Tomlinson: Yeah, thanks. Uh, first big fan of the successful athletic minded man podcast.

[13:15] But more importantly, I’m Brian Tomlinson, lifelong Hoosier. Born and bred here in, uh, Indianapolis, Indiana area. Father of four, Eddie and Patrick and Grace are still with us. Violet is, uh, intercessor for us in heaven. God love her. And, uh, my wife is Chrissy. And, um, I am actually now in the midst of a career pivot into the insurance agency business.

[13:36] After spending over two decades in higher ed, nonprofit leadership Works, we’re focusing on investigations. Really appreciate you having me, man.

[13:44] Jim Harshaw: Yeah, man. Well, big career transition you, you’re going through. So Brian, you crushed the 30 day on the path October challenge. Interestingly, this is before you became a Pathfinder, one of my, one of my clients in Theia Path coaching program.

[13:57] But that’s beside the point. So for now, just tell us about what your challenge was, the challenge that you designed. What were the items that you selected and why?

[14:05] Brian Tomlinson: The challenges I set up for myself were, the first ones was called a three by 100 by 10 o’clock, and for me it was a hundred pushups, a hundred sit-ups, and a hundred air squats before 10 o’clock.

[14:16] And then the next challenge was 150 grams of protein in my diet. And that wasn’t 150 grams of fried chicken and had to be good clean protein every day. And then a marital gratitude journalist, I’m a Catholic, and so I have a practice every evening of. What they call the nightly examine, where I examine my conscience, and you start that with gratitude saying out loud or at least thinking in your head, these are the things I’m grateful for.

[14:40] But where I had gotten off track was a specific effort to really think about what I was grateful about my wife. So I actually had this little black book and every night I would write down something about the day that I was so grateful for, for her. End of the month I gave her the the notebook and she now keeps it in her purse and reads it.

[14:59] Jim Harshaw: So what were the benefits? So at the end of the month, what did you see, feel, experience through that process and, and at the end,

[15:06] Brian Tomlinson: the personal benefits were definitely there. You know, I got stronger from doing the pushups and situps and pull-ups. Definitely had more energy that came from eating the protein and felt leaner less, wasn’t craving quite as many things, but the marital gratitude journal was the big win, right?

[15:21] It was just the intentional focus of remembering why she’s my best friend. Why the good Lord decided that the two of us were gonna go through this life together. I’m really, really grateful that in those moments where those big life changes came our way, that I was intently focused on her. Sometimes you just, you get off track and you forget to do that.

[15:39] So that really brought me back to it. So,

[15:41] Jim Harshaw: yeah. Yeah. Good job. That’s, that’s a great lesson for all of us. The listener who’s thinking. I wanna create my own challenge, you know? What advice do you have for them? Like what worked, what didn’t work? Like what advice would you have for somebody else creating their own challenge?

[15:55] Brian Tomlinson: Yeah, there’s a couple things there. I think firstly, but do it with somebody, and it doesn’t have to be like your best friends. What you’re gonna find is if you really want to challenge yourself, find someone to do it with you. And if you can find an accountability partner in it. Now, my accountability partners were my family.

[16:11] You know, my kids every day seeing me in the middle of my bedroom, sort of squirrelly doing some squats and pushups and all that, and wondering, dad, what, what are you doing? Let’s get started for school. And then they started asking me, did you, did you eat your protein? Now they didn’t know I was doing the gratitude journal.

[16:25] I kept that to myself. I had my accountability partners with the kids. The other piece of advice I would give, if you’re gonna plan a challenge, consult with people that know you. Right? So I ended up having my physical, um, with my doc. Later in October, you know, have people in your corner consult with the right people.

[16:42] And as I mentioned earlier, like do it, have a reason, have a mission for it.

[16:46] Jim Harshaw: Have your why, and then we talk about in the environment of excellence, like your doctor is part of your environment of excellence. Well, good job man. So you crushed the 30 day on the path October challenge. You are a longtime pathfinder.

[16:59] I want you to take a moment to introduce yourself please. My

[17:02] John Lyons: name’s John Lyons. Uh, I live in Coopersburg, pa, married 18 years to my college sweetheart. We have four boys, three up to 15 years old, and uh, I keep busy during the day as an engineer.

[17:12] Jim Harshaw: Awesome. You dwent 30 for 30 on your challenge. Why don’t you tell us what your challenge was like, what were the items that you chose and why?

[17:20] John Lyons: Going into it this year, I was really looking for things that were gonna try to blend in, enhance what I had going on already. I picked off stuff that would help a mindset a lot, kind of getting the day started. Right. So the first thing I had was just a, a glass of water. In the morning. So something simple, obviously it’s healthy for you, everybody talks about being hydrated, but for me it’s more about getting that small win and, and sort of the mental aspect of it.

[17:39] The second thing was, uh, daily mobility. So I try to stay pretty fit, work out on a regular basis and I was kind of at a phase where I had some nagging injuries and things work best when they’re consistent. So this is a good opportunity to, to do like maybe not so hard physically, but hard mentally to like just break down and do the thing you know you need to do.

[17:55] So just daily mobility. So that’s sort of the physical end of it. Like it’s a preparation side is a daily journal. So this is something I aspire to do, like 365 days a year, but I found myself not doing it and, and saw this as a good opportunity to, to get back to that. And it’s just as simple for me, it’s gratitude, you know, kinda like a five minute journal type of format.

[18:12] You know, something I’m grateful for. And then what are my key actions? What are my, my key things I need to do from a personal end of things and then also at work.

[18:20] Jim Harshaw: Yeah, that simple, productive pause.

[18:22] John Lyons: That’s really what it is. It’s that daily productive pause to give you some peace of mind and the fight off the battles for the day.

[18:27] Jim Harshaw: And so what were the benefits? What were the, so you mentioned with the mobility, you started feeling good pretty quickly from that. Tell us more about some of the benefits you experienced from doing this.

[18:36] John Lyons: For me, the biggest benefit was just kind of knowing that I started off the day, right?

[18:39] Jim Harshaw: Like there’s a psychological benefit to knowing you started the day, right?

[18:43] That carries over through the rest of your day, like, and there’s also a psychological detriment if we didn’t start our day right. That also carries throughout the day, just subtly. There’s just that residue. So you did the water, the mobility, the Daily journal. Any other benefits that you can share from that experience from going through that for 30 days and doing those things?

[19:03] John Lyons: Yeah, I mean, everybody knows that the small things, the habits that you have are kind of accumulate to the bigger things. I guess there’s a mind that, yeah, you can do it. And for me it was about blending in with what’s there and enhancing what’s what’s already going on. And just having that mindset is, is one of the biggest things that I think you can impact, I guess change about what you’ve got going on and impact what you have coming in the future, like how you see things, how you interact with people.

[19:25] You have the ideas that come into your head, like it all adds up, little bits and bits and just doing this 30 for 30, you can do it and start small and build off of it and stay consistent.

[19:33] Jim Harshaw: Yeah, that’s the point about this is like this is a customized challenge and for the listener, John is like very fit guy.

[19:39] So it’s like, does John need 75? Hard, maybe, maybe not. I mean, the guy’s already very fit. It’s like, let’s, let’s decide on what you need for you to be the best version of you and you got a lot of boxes already checked in your life and just help you get clear on what are the other things I need to fill in.

[19:55] And, and you did those so. John, what advice do you have for the
[20:00] listener who’s saying, okay, I wanna create my own challenge?

[20:02] John Lyons: Yeah, I guess for me it was finding things that aligned with my values, and that’s some of the things like the one of the RIP fundamentals of, you know, what do you value and how do you use that to make decisions, you know in life to get to where you want to be and have the things around it that you wanna have.

[20:15] And actually, one of the things I forgot to mention earlier is, one of other parts of the challenges was a daily note to my wife. So actually I had bought. Jen, a like small journal when we got married, thinking like, oh, we’re gonna fill this thing out. And it got to be like 10, 15 years later and there’s like 30 pages filled out at like 200.

[20:28] So let’s use this opportunity to, to fill that up a little bit. Really, it just, it wasn’t anything great cran, it was more just like a, a thank you acknowledgement of little things going on in life,

[20:36] Jim Harshaw: but that’s it. You stacked those little things in, it adds up to a mountain.

[20:40] John Lyons: Yeah.

[20:40] Jim Harshaw: Thanks John. I want you to take a minute and introduce yourself please.

[20:44] Matt Von der Ahe: Okay. I’m Matt Von der Ahe. I live in Los Gatos, California. I’m a commercial real estate broker. I’ve been married for 25 years. Uh, my wife and I have three kids. They’re all within about five years, but right now I have a junior high, a high schooler. My oldest is in college.

[21:00] Jim Harshaw: So Matt, tell the listener about your challenge, the challenge that you de designed.

[21:04] Like you crushed it, you went 30 for 30. What were the items that you chose and why?

[21:08] Matt Von der Ahe: So they kind of chose a challenge. It was about how can I show up better tomorrow? And so what I picked was to get a swim in every morning, 800 yards plus a hit core or spin workout. Second was no alcohol, and the third was to have a plan for tomorrow.

[21:28] For me, it was just, how can I show up better for tomorrow? So, you know, being physically fit, alcohol is enjoyable, but doesn’t always lead to the most productive next day. So just cut that out and then having a plan as opposed to just showing up the next morning and trying to figure it out.

[21:44] Jim Harshaw: What did that look like?

[21:45] That part of it, that having a plan, did you, were you sitting down and kind of looking at your calendar or just planning your to-do list? What, what did that part entail?

[21:53] Matt Von der Ahe: Yeah, it was sitting down every night and spending five, 10 minutes looking at the calendar and kind of reviewing what had been accomplished and what needed to get done the next day, and kind of trying to block time for that.

[22:04] Jim Harshaw: Yeah. Productive pause, right? Doesn’t take very long. Easy to do. Easy not to do. But you did it. And so what were the benefits? Like what? What did you see, feel, experience from? I’m particularly interested in that last item, but, but from all of it, right? No alcohol, the daily workouts, and then the daily planning session for tomorrow.

[22:20] Matt Von der Ahe: Yeah, so the, the funny thing is I was expecting that once I had been on this for a few weeks, that I’d be feeling great and focused and I didn’t. What was interesting, I think, is that the first part of it was that I was really stacking up some workouts and I really wasn’t paying attention to any recovery.

[22:37] It was just working harder. So I think I was wearing myself down, and then especially the swims, the challenge with the swims is, is getting to swim in every day is. Is it easy for me except that the pool is solar heated. So by the end of October, all of a sudden, you know, I’m diving into a pool for 20 minutes.

[22:52] That’s in the mid sixties. The, the actual swim isn’t that hard, but core body temperature is, is knocked down quite a bit. And that was why I did that. Part of the challenge too was can I make it through October? Which I did, but I think I was really wearing myself down. Not a ton, but I just wasn’t feeling like, you know, it’s like, Hey, I haven’t had a drop of alcohol in three weeks and yet I’m not feeling any sharper.

[23:15] It was interesting, but I, I think, you know, that’s the great thing about these challenges is you learn.

[23:20] Jim Harshaw: Yeah.

[23:20] Matt Von der Ahe: So it was a good learning piece for me. And then to have, to have a plan every day, I mean, that was helpful. I think that makes you a bit more productive and, and get a little bit more out of your day as opposed to just.

[23:32] You know, spending the first hour figuring out what needs to happen.

[23:35] Jim Harshaw: Yeah. I always find that so helpful. Like if I have a plan before I open my computer, I’m much, much more productive. It’s like, make your bed, you know, the concept of make your bed, like do something productive. Put yourself into a productive mindset.

[23:47] Starting off the day, getting the right things done. It just sets the tone and we like, oh, what does that mean? Set the tone. It puts you into a different frame of mind at the start of the day, and you’re not trying to switch gears into a better frame of mind later, like you’re starting from that. That point.

[24:02] So did you find yourself being more productive and more focused at work?

[24:06] Matt Von der Ahe: Yeah, definitely. E especially in the mornings, the stacked workouts started wearing on me. Really? In the afternoons?

[24:12] Jim Harshaw: Yeah. So what advice would you have for the listener who says, yeah, I wanna create my own challenge, I want to do this.

[24:18] What advice would you have for them?

[24:19] Matt Von der Ahe: My advice would be. Really what you want to do is pick a challenge that’s gonna help you either start a good habit or break a bad habit or a routine. Doing something hard for 30 days is great. I mean, you can do something heroic for 30 days, but if you go back to your old ways on day 31, it’s all for Naugh.

[24:35] So it’s a great way to. Explore, Hey, is this a routine or a habit that I can pick up or break and do long term, even if it’s not day in, day out? So my advice would be be intentional about what do you want to do beyond those 30 days? Because you can grit out anything for 30 days. Just about and, and maybe not any 30 days, but you can find 30 days to grid out just about anything.

[25:00] And that’s not gonna get you where you wanna be long term, if you’re gonna drop it as soon as it’s done and be like, thank God that’s over.

[25:08] Jim Harshaw: Are you still doing any of these or incorporating some of these in some days, or all of them in all the days?

[25:13] Matt Von der Ahe: Not swimming right now, but I am getting in a workout usually two daily.

[25:18] I’m not as good at the planning the next day, every day as I should be, but I’m still doing it. I’ve kind of built into that habit better, and alcohol intake is way down from what it was prior to that, that October. I think again, it’s. You know, not specifically being a challenge of no alcohol, it’s just realizing that, hey, that’s something I can totally do without.

[25:37] Jim Harshaw: Yeah. So it is not necessarily that like, Hey, I’m gonna continue these three habits every day all the time. It’s okay, I learned that. Maybe I overdid it on the workout side, the alcohol, you know, maybe I’m not doing no alcohol. But it sounds like you’ve cut it back, which is certainly a positive. And then on the planning, sounds like you’re doing that some days, and the days you do it, you get the benefit from it.

[25:56] Good. Well, thanks for sharing. Matt. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Take a minute and just introduce yourself please.

[26:02] Roger Robinson: Roger Robinson live in Iowa work, uh, for a financial services company. Married for 30 years. Son, who, uh, has grown lives in Minneapolis with his wonderful wife. Uh, got married last year, so we introduced a new member to the family last year.

[26:19] Jim Harshaw: Congrats. So tell us about your challenge. Tell us about the challenge that you designed for yourself. What items did you select and why?

[26:26] Roger Robinson: So I did three. I did a 10 pages a day read, I did no social media for 30 days and then a hundred pushups a day, and really chose all three of those. One, the 10 pages a day, more just.

[26:40] To grow personally, professionally, no. Social media really is more about, I wanted to surround myself with information that I wanted to put into my brain and. Then it just in turn makes you feel better all around. And then the, the a hundred pushups, some people might think that that’s a lot. Some people think that that’s not very many.

[27:02] There was just something in addition to what I was already doing. I run, I work out six to seven days a week, so I just added that to what I was currently doing just to make it one more thing that I was doing. So

[27:14] Jim Harshaw: yeah, those are three really good. Habits, in my opinion. You know, just the compound effect of that dose of growth every day, reduction in the negativity, even if it’s not negative on social media.

[27:28] Just the stuff that we see that is telling us that we’re not good enough and that you should be doing this other thing. And oh, here’s, here’s some clickbait for you. You know, whether it’s. Political or just inappropriate in some way, or just something that that is not, not helpful or valuable for you. And then add, and then the pushups, right?

[27:46] Adding the additional physical thing. You’re already, like you said, you already work out, you’re a locked in, physically fit guy and you wanted to stack something else on top of that. So what benefits, what did you feel at the end of the 30 days being locked in like this?

[27:58] Roger Robinson: Well, a lot of things that you feel like, obviously the 10 pages a day.

[28:02] I read a lot in general, but not consistent. So it was awesome to be able to read every day, 10 pages, you get to finish a couple of books that have been sitting on the shelf. So I thought that was awesome. The social media for me, I have not been on social media since the challenge. It’s been awesome. So I recently, last week, had a birthday and my wife said, Hey, you have a a hundred.

[28:26] Or so people that have wished you a happy birthday on uh, Facebook, do you want to get on and say thanks? I said, not really. Um, but I did. I got on real quick, said, Hey, thanks for the birthday wishes and got off, didn’t look at anything. So for me, it’s getting to put in the information from the news that I wanna consume.

[28:44] And again, like you said, it, it may not even be the news, but it’s getting on there and seeing somebody that has done something that maybe they really. Haven’t done, I don’t know. So, uh, it’s just interesting for me to get it, to be able to put in there and spend my time. On school instead of spending it on social media that I don’t like.

[29:08] Jim Harshaw: Yeah. And for reference for the listener school is our private platform where Roger, myself, and 90 some other guys interact. It’s our community of like-minded men who are wired like Roger, wired like me, wanna be the best versions of ourselves. And it’s like, if we’re gonna scroll, let, let’s scroll talking to these kind of guys about the kind of stuff we like to talk about.

[29:29] Roger Robinson: And then the pushups. I mean, obviously you do notice regardless of what you currently do for fitness, if you’re doing a hundred pushups a day for 30 days, you see a change. And so it’s awesome just to be able to feel better about yourself regardless, just because you’re doing that. That was really, like I said, mind, body, and kind of soul for those three purposes, and that’s why I did that.

[29:54] So.

[29:54] Jim Harshaw: So for the listener who’s. Hearing you share this and they’re like, man, I wanna create my own challenge. Like what
[30:00] advice do you have for them to help them either pick the right things or stay on track and make sure they actually do the things that they’re choosing?

[30:07] Roger Robinson: It’s different for everybody. So not everybody enjoys running in 20 degree below zero weather.

[30:13] Not everybody enjoys doing that. I don’t enjoy it, but I do it because it’s a challenge.

[30:17] Jim Harshaw: That’s right.

[30:17] Roger Robinson: And not everybody else is out there doing it. So for me. It makes me feel good about doing things. So what I would tell somebody is find something that you are not doing currently today, and if it’s that you wanna run a 5K, just start running around the block.

[30:35] I think the key is to start, and I think that’s the biggest. Thing that you’ll find is if you just start something, it’s interesting how your body all of a sudden craves the desire to do what it is that you’ve started to do. Because once you do it, the pain of regret is way worse than the pain of actually doing what it is that you say you want to do.

[30:57] Jim Harshaw: Awesome. Thanks, Roger. Tim, this is not your first time through this. This is your third. You did it last year. Okay. This is your third time crushing the on the Path October challenge. First of all, just introduce yourself for a second please.

[31:10] Tim Lynch: Okay. My name’s Tim Lynch. I live in South Jersey right outside Philly.

[31:13] For the last almost 20 years, I’ve been a union stage hand in Philly. Just recently stepped away from my position so that I could be a full-time entrepreneur and, you know, head first I did it. Uh, headfirst dive into entrepreneurship and, uh, it seems to be working out,

[31:28] Jim Harshaw: uh, Pathfinder of the year too, by the way, for the listeners.

[31:31] My community we’re called Pathfinders. We got, as of recording this, 90 people. He’s got his trophy. If you’re watching the video of this, he’s holding his Pathfinder of the year trophy.

[31:39] Tim Lynch: I came in the mail today and I’m like, what is this? I don’t think I remember ordering anything from this company. And my kids were there when I opened it up and they’re like, oh dad.

[31:46] That’s so cool.

[31:48] Jim Harshaw: Yeah, yeah. Well, you’ve earned it, man. So tell us about your challenge. Like, you know, you crushed it, you went 30 for 30, you hit all your items every day for 30 days. What was the challenge you designed and why?

[31:58] Tim Lynch: This is my third year. The thought of the challenge. I wanted to have something that made me better.

[32:02] I wanted to have something that was a little bit physical, but most of all just, uh, something that I could stick to every day for 30 days. I wanted to read or listen to one chapter in a book that would make me better every single day. The Compound Effect, the book, you know, we talk about e even as, as Pathfinders, you talk about compounding a lot, how it stacks up.

[32:24] So one chapter a day at the end of the year could be a ton of books. I think Jim Ron. I had mentioned that you can get a PhD level education just by reading every day. You know, that was important. I wanna get better. I want to get better so I can be better so I can serve the community better. I put a 100 pushup minimum a day as a part of my challenge.

[32:44] Most of the people in my group are athletes and have a athletic background. Tons of wrestlers and other sports. That’s not my background necessarily. I’ve never had a coach and organized sports aren’t my thing, but I’ve noticed over the last several years that when I do better physically and challenge myself physically, I perform better.

[33:05] Emotionally, these things all connect together. Physical aspect, the reading aspect, the eating aspect, it all connects together with my emotional wellbeing and me being a better parent, a better employer, better employee, if that was the case. Just a better human and, uh, better able to serve. So put the pushups in there and I’m still going.

[33:25] One other aspect of my challenge was I wanted to reach out to another Pathfinder every day to either just say hello that I’m thinking about them, or see if I could be of service. To them. So reaching out to somebody to keep a connection in this group and, uh, strengthen my environment of excellence.

[33:41] Jim Harshaw: Yeah.

[33:42] For listeners, so four things. Tim had writing three gratitudes every morning, a hundred pushups, a minimum. Read or listen to one chapter of a book every day and then reach out to one other, Pathfinder, say hello or be of service. And so what benefits, what did you see, feel, experience from that?

[33:59] Tim Lynch: The three gratitudes, I have been doing gratitudes for years now.

[34:04] I try to do ’em every day. I have a yellow legal pad, one of the many legal pads. I write the date down and I write three things that I’m grateful for and I try to do it every single morning and having the date there. Shows me what my patterns are. That shows consistency, that shows I’m invested in my future and invested in getting better.

[34:23] The same thing with the reading or listening to a book. I’m getting better informed, absorbing knowledge, and I’m open to my mind to different perspectives so that. I could expand my knowledge, I could expand my service or my ability to be of service to others. You know, the environment of excellence is something we talk a lot about as pathfinders, should I say, my environment, period.

[34:47] Being a stage hand was kind of small. Lot of the same types of people, a lot of the same attitude. And a lot of negativity, especially when you’re on jobs. People tend to complain a lot when you’re on these kind of jobs. So I’m trying to remove myself from the, from the complaints, remove myself from even local news or national news.

[35:06] I took that outta my life. So reaching out to other pathfinders to be of service or just to see how they’re doing, it restores my connection to something positive. So it seems to be working out for me because I got a trophy sitting next to me, a loose light trophy as a pathfinder of the year on it.

[35:23] Jim Harshaw: And if you become a pathfinder for listener, you’ll get to know Tim more.

[35:26] But he is just, he’s got an amazing story. The more you get to know him and, and what he’s doing in his business is, is really cool for everybody else to be inspired by. And he, Tim’s mentioned the environment of excellence a couple times now and episode 445. If you wanna know more about the environment of excellence, go back to episode 4, 4, 5.

[35:42] That was back from February of 2024. I recorded that everything in there is a hundred percent relevant and accurate today, as it was then on the day it was recorded. So you got a lot of benefit from this. So, Tim, for the listener who’s like, I wanna create a challenge, I wanna do a challenge for myself, what advice do you offer?

[35:55] Tim Lynch: So the first thing. It’s personal, so I wanted to make sure that whatever things I put on my challenge, first of all, that it is a challenge. ’cause even though I can make it personal, I don’t want to make it something like wake up every day because I wake up every day anyway. I want to challenge myself so I could push myself to get a little bit better.

[36:12] But I also did want to put, I want to bench press 400 pounds every day because it’s not realistic for me. The things that I put on my challenge this year are realistic. They’re attainable, timely, they’re a good goal. And when you get to look at either a calendar with Xs on it all in a row or a spreadsheet like we had with dots on it all in a row, it shows consistency.

[36:35] I think to me that’s just as good as a trophy when you’re tracking, you have a scorecard and it me that I’m consistent with myself. I made a promise to myself that I was gonna complete this challenge and I did it.

[36:46] Jim Harshaw: There’s accountability. There’s other people watching and there’s other people you’re doing this with, right?

[36:50] There’s a community of guys who you know that you’re doing this with. You know, they’re doing it, they know you’re doing it. There’s a level of accountability and, and awareness that other people have and, and we all, all operate better in that environment.

[37:02] Tim Lynch: The cool thing about this group too, and once you get to know people that are pathfinders and are in this group, we’re texting each other, like behind the scenes, how’d you do today?

[37:10] Or, we’re texting each other. You’re slipping. Pick each other up. You know, break each other’s stones a little bit too, but pick each other up. And, uh, accountability’s key.

[37:20] Jim Harshaw: Well, we’re grateful for you, grateful for your impact on the community. Man. We’re just scratching the surface.

[37:25] Tim Lynch: I know we’re scratching the surface and I’m not young anymore either.

[37:28] I’m 57 years old, so I’m going to continue to push. I’m not looking at retirement. I’m not staring retirement in the face. But what I am staring in the face is experiences. I’m focusing on experiences, sharing experience with my families, sharing experiences with the people in this group, and, uh, really growing.

[37:47] Jim Harshaw: Grateful for you man.

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