[00:00] Welcome to another episode of, wait a second. This isn’t just another episode. This is episode 500. I just looked up the date. I always forget the date. It was April 28th, 2015. When I published the very first episode, episode number one of my podcast, which back then was called wrestling with greatness. And if you want to listen to that first episode, make sure you grab the action plan, or if you already get the action plans in your email inbox on Monday mornings.

[00:30] That link will be right in there and you can click and you can listen to the first episode a little cringy. I feel like, you know, but it’s probably just me. I think it’s an okay episode. It’s 15 minutes long. I’m introducing the concept of the podcast. And if you can picture me recording that from inside of my walk in closet, clothes hanging all around me because the acoustics are great inside of a closet to be on in the clothing closet.

[00:52] And that’s where I recorded the first episode from. So it’s been a long time. It’s been just about 10 years since that first recording. And this is episode 500. And what are we talking about today? This is a really special episode. If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines and just listening for years, and you’re ready to take some kind of action, small, low commitment action, I’ve got something really special, really unique, something I’ve never done before.

[01:21] And I’m going to announce this at the end of this episode and you can join in. It’s totally free and, and it will absolutely change your life. So I’m going to reveal all of that at the end of this episode. But this episode is, everything I’m going to talk about is going to lead up to why I’m doing what I’m doing here at the end of the show.

[01:39] And what are we talking about today? We’re talking about a Navy SEAL, a blind mountaineer, and a pastor. Sounds like the beginning of a joke, of course, but it’s not. After 500 podcast episodes, I can tell you. That these three guys have something in common. And once you hear it, it’ll change the way you think about success and the way you think about going about life forever.

[02:03] And what if I told you that in 30 days you could do the same simple step, the same action and completely change your trajectory, your success, your productivity, your business, even your relationships, just by doing this one thing. Every day, it takes less than three minutes a day. You know, no major life overhaul is required here.

[02:21] No crazy morning routine where you have to stand on your head and drink a green powder drink while saying mantras. This is just a simple, powerful action that has already transformed the lives of high achievers all over the world. And I’m inviting you to join me. And 499 others in proving how powerful this is, right?

[02:43] This episode is going to change. Like I said, how you think about success. And by the end, I’m going to invite you to this thing and you’ll get a chance to engage in. So stay with me here. I guarantee you this right now. You are working harder than some of the most successful people in the world. And that’s exactly why you’re not winning at the level that, you know, you’re capable of, you know, there’s another gear inside of you.

[03:04] And here’s what they do differently. If I had to sum up everything that I’ve learned from 500 episodes from, you know, not every one of these was an episode with a, an interview, but well over 300 were with world class performers. But if I could sum it up in one sentence, it wouldn’t be work harder. It wouldn’t be.

[03:24] Be disciplined. The key to success is something that 99 percent of people ignore completely. And I’m going to reveal this to you. And like I said, it’s been 10 years, it’s been 500 episodes, hundreds of elite performers, and the greatest skill that they share. It’s not in a business book. It’s not taught in school.

[03:40] And most people completely overlook it. When you think about this over the past 10 years, I’ve interviewed all of these amazing people. And if I. We’re to charge for this episode. It would be like a high ticket seminar, but I’m going to give you this insight for free, and this is going to be the best use of the next 20 or 30 minutes.

[03:59] Possibly of your entire life, to be honest. So turn off the distractions, tune in, listen up. And what I share here today could, it could double your income. It could change your marriage. It could help you show up better for your kids. It could be a reason why you stopped spinning your wheels at work. So keep listening because this isn’t just about you.

[04:16] It’s about all the people who also need you in your life. Whether this is your kids, your spouse, your family, your friends, your, you know, direct reports at work, et cetera. We all want success. The question is, like, why is it that some people seem to achieve at the highest levels while others get stuck?

[04:34] What is the real difference here? Um, and I spend a lot of time thinking about this, and today I’m going to share with you what these three individuals, the Navy SEAL, the Blind Mountaineer, and this famous pastor, I’m going to share with you the, the one habit that they do, and this is something, you know, listen, they’ve achieved success in completely different environments, right?

[04:54] One was in the most extreme combat situations imaginable. Has been in the most extreme environments on earth, uh, summoning Mount Everest. And another one has transformed millions of lives and in relationships around the world. And so their backgrounds are, they couldn’t be more different, but they all landed on the exact same thing when it comes to success.

[05:12] And so who are these three guys? Number one, Robert O’Neill. Number two, Eric Weinmeier. Number three, Gary Chapman. So who are these guys? Robert O’Neill. He was the Navy SEAL who shot and killed Osama bin Laden. He was on SEAL Team 6. He participated in over 400 combat missions across all these different theaters of war.

[05:32] He was the guy who literally pulled the trigger and shot and killed Osama bin Laden. And he’s been the recipient of numerous Military honors. He’s got two silver stars. He’s got four bronze stars with Valor. And after his military service, uh, he co founded the special operations transition foundation.

[05:50] Cause he really struggled with his transition out of the military and he’s ventured into entrepreneurship, just really interesting guy. And so I will have the link to that episode. If you want to go back and listen to that, I’ll have that in the action plan. As a matter of fact, for all of these guys.

[06:04] Robert O’Neill, Eric Weinmayer, and Gary Chapman. I’m going to have the link to all of their episodes if you want to go back and listen. I’ll have those in the action plan. Again, as always, go to jimharshawjr.com/action, and you’ll get those delivered to your inbox every Monday. So I’m going to have those in there.

[06:18] But, um, so that’s the first guest is Robert O’Neill. And the second Guest who I want to reference is Eric Weinmeier. Eric Weinmeier was the first blind person to summit Mount Everest. This is in back in May 25th, 2001. Summited Mount Everest. He’s blind. And he completed the seven summits by 2008. That means summiting the highest peaks on all seven continents.

[06:43] After that, he became an accomplished whitewater kayaker, and he actually whitewater kayaked the entire length, 277 miles. Of the Grand Canyon, huge whitewater. I’m a whitewater kayaker. I’ve kayaked class five, big whitewater on the Gali river. If you’re on the East coast, you might’ve didn’t do any whitewater.

[07:00] You know, the Gali rivers, massive whitewater. I’ve done that in a kayak and, um, big stuff. And that pales in comparison to 277 miles of the Grand Canyon. And, and so he just an incredible human being. And he began his career as a fifth grade teacher. He was a teacher. sharing life lessons and got into climbing and into all of these amazing adventures.

[07:23] And, you know, he’s since written a couple of New York Times best selling books, and he co founded the No Barriers organization, which is a nonprofit dedicated to helping individuals overcome their personal challenges and live fulfilling lives, regardless of what’s holding them back. And so Eric Weinmayer is the second one, and the third and final one is Gary Chapman.

[07:43] Gary Chapman wrote The five love languages, I’m sure you’ve heard of that as a bestseller transformed countless relationships around the world, and it’s a great interview in a great book if you’ve not read it and you can take the love languages quiz as well for free. It’s just a really, really helpful thing for any relationship and he’s.

[08:03] He’s been a marriage counselor for decades. He’s a sought after speaker on love and relationships and personal growth. And he served as a pastor for many, many years as well. So those are the three individuals, Robert O’Neill, the Navy SEAL, Eric Weinmeier, the blind Mountaineer and Gary Chapman, the famous pastor and published author and founder of the love languages.

[08:23] And when I spoke with each of these guys, I noticed something interesting, something identical in how they approach success. And it’s easy to miss. But I’m going to reveal it to you here today. All right. So let’s start with Robert O’Neill. Robert O’Neill faced challenges where failure wasn’t an option.

[08:38] Let’s be honest. Like, you know, missions that Navy SEALs go on, you know, failure can mean death and can mean a lot of, you know, even short of that can mean a lot of really, really bad things. And here’s, what’s interesting success for him didn’t come from just being more skilled or having more knowledge or being tougher.

[08:55] He said it comes from something else, totally different. And here’s how he describes it. And here’s a quote from that episode. He said, if you fail at two miles swim and you know, you have to cut five minutes off of your time, worrying about that, isn’t going to change anything, learn from what you failed.

[09:13] Adjust and then move forward worrying does nothing. Okay. So that’s the end quote here, but worrying does nothing. What did he say? He said, learn from why you failed adjust and then move forward. So pause and learn. That’s what essentially he’s boiling that down to three words. Pause and learn, right? You don’t learn.

[09:35] By just waking up and trying to do the slim again or, you know, in your scenario, wherever you’re at in life, it’s not just wake up and keep on grinding and trying to do the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. No, he said, pause and learn. Okay. Here’s another quote from that episode.

[09:53] He said, we knew this mission was a one way mission. This is when he’s sitting in
[10:00] a helicopter in Afghanistan, about 120 or so miles away from their target, Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. When he’s sitting there, he knew it was a one way mission. Literally, they assumed they weren’t coming back from this mission, but they were going to do it anyway.

[10:16] He had clarity. In his mission, clarity of action. Okay. So this is what he’s saying. He’s saying, pause and learn clarity of mission, two things. Navy SEAL, Robert O’Neill, SEAL Team 6. That’s what he said. All right. Let’s go over to Eric Weimar. Eric Weimar is one of the most elite adventurers in the world. I don’t care if you’re sighted or not sighted, one of the most elite adventurers in the world.

[10:41] Summited Mount Everest, did the Seven Summits, summited a bunch of other mountains, Whitewater Kayak, the Grand Canyon. But when he, here’s the deal, when he first started rock climbing. He was just a blind kid with no idea how to do it. He had barriers. He had to fail. He had to struggle just like when he learned how to whitewater kayak.

[11:00] And here’s what he said. Here’s a quote from my interview with Eric Weinmeier. Again, I’m going to have the links to all these episodes. If you want to go back and listen to those, I’ll put those in the action plan for you. But he said this, he said, a lot of the barriers are in. The mind, they’re invisible and they’re barriers of doubt and fear and anxiety.

[11:18] A lot of times we misdiagnose what the barriers are. We lash out, we blame things, and we’re not really turning inward and saying, what is the barrier that is truly holding me back? And he goes on to say, what you should do. This is one of the most elite adventures in the world. He says this, what you should do is write down all the things that are holding you back.

[11:40] All the reasons why you shouldn’t do it. And then really start analyzing those barriers and try to figure out how you’re going to attack each of those. Again, same message, totally different environment, same message, pause and learn. Same thing as Robert O’Neill, pause and learn. He’s saying not just keep going headlong into this thing.

[12:03] He’s saying hit the pause button and learn. Eric Weimer goes on to say this. He said, no, this is before one of his expeditions. And when they were kind of working up to climbing Denali, which is the highest mountain in the United States, it’s in Alaska, Mount McKinley. And when he was training for that, he had to learn how to set up his tent and they did other, you know, sort of smaller mountains leading up to this.

[12:24] And he said, when I was setting up the tent on one of these other training expeditions, this is what happened. Here’s his quote. He said, I was setting up the tent, but every time I took my gloves off, my hands went numb. And my friends had to do it for me and I felt humiliated. So I went back to Arizona, where he lives, and he said, I set up a tent over and over again in a field, in a tank top, in mountaineering gloves.

[12:47] People driving by must have thought that I was crazy, but by the time I got to Denali, I could set up a tent in any condition. He had clarity of mission. He knew what he had to do. In order to summit Denali Working his way towards Everest and his other accomplishments, he had clarity of mission and so he knew what he had to do and he was willing to and did do the hard thing, which is go back home in Arizona in the middle of a field, put on your mountaineering gloves as a blind man.

[13:22] By yourself, setting up a tent over and over again until you can do it in any condition. Clarity of mission. Pause and learn. Clarity of mission. Eric Weimer, one of the top adventurers in the world. This, like I said, this guy went on to write multiple New York Times bestselling books. This is a guy who just achieves things.

[13:39] Huge things, not just despite his handicap of being blind, but also because of it. All right. So that’s, we talked about Robert O’Neill. We talked about Eric Weimer third and final guest here. I want to reference Gary Chapman. Gary Chapman is the renowned author of the five love languages, which is a.

[13:56] Bestseller, international bestseller, transformed countless lives, just an incredible guy. And here’s what he said in our conversation. He said this, and this was really fascinating. He said, quote, When couples are on the verge of giving up, I ask them to take 15 minutes separately to write down all of the ways that they’ve failed in their marriage.

[14:15] Then they confess to each other and ask for forgiveness. That alone can begin breaking down the walls. Okay. He’s saying, pause and learn. Same thing. Same thing as Robert O’Neill did. Same thing as Eric Weimar did. Totally different environment. We’re talking about relationships now, not talking about war, not talking about training to be a Navy SEAL, not talking about climbing Mount Everest or training to climb Mount Everest.

[14:37] We’re talking about marriages and relationships. Same concept, pause and learn. He goes on to say this, and he was talking about when he was going through his own relationship challenges. He said, I asked my wife three questions. Number one, what can I do to help? Number two, how can I make your life easier?

[14:53] Number three, how can I be a better husband? Her answers changed our marriage. Again, clarity of mission. He got clarity of what the mission is. Okay, improve my marriage. In some cases, for a lot of people, it might be save my marriage. And What do I need to do? Clarity of mission. All right. So we heard from three different people who all said, pause and learn clarity of mission, different situations, different stakes, but do you hear the common thread here?

[15:22] There’s something powerful that is underlying all of their success and what they teach and what they preach and what they’ve lived, all three. These are world class performers. And they all understand the same thing and most people miss it. Pause and learn clarity of mission. This is the key. Now, if you want a quotable from this podcast episode, if you want something to write down, something to write on your whiteboard, something to put on a post it note from this episode, here it is.

[15:49] It’s the next two sentences I’m about to give you. Write this down, keep it, clip it, screenshot it. If you have the transcript from this episode, whatever you got to do, we’ll put this in the action plan. Of course, here it is. The secret to success is clarity and the secret to clarity is the productive pause.

[16:10] You might be thinking, well, I thought the secret to success was visualization, or I thought the secret to success was, uh, hard work. It’s not. There are steps before those. We see plenty of people who are struggling through life, working really hard. You need to step back. The secret to success is clarity.

[16:28] The secret to clarity is a productive pause. And I’m going to talk to you here in a minute about how we can do this together. There’s going to be a 30 day challenge here, but listen, whether you’re leading an elite Navy SEAL mission, you’re repairing a broken marriage, scaling the highest mountains in the world, doesn’t matter.

[16:42] Success does not come from sheer willpower or toughness or grinding harder. They come from taking the time to step back, reflect, ask yourself the right questions, pause and learn, get clarity of your mission, clarity of action. Eric Weinmayer told me this. He said this. This is the blind Mountaineer. He said, a lot of people think they know what’s holding them back, but they don’t think about that for a second.

[17:07] This was Eric Weimer. He said, a lot of people think they know what’s holding them back, but they don’t. If you’re stuck, you probably haven’t actually identified the real barrier. And that’s why the key to success is clarity for you. Robert O’Neill said this. He said, worrying does nothing. This is the Navy SEAL.

[17:26] Worrying does nothing. That’s what he said. I read that quote here a few minutes ago. So what if the biggest mistake you’re making is worrying about things that don’t even matter? He faced arguably the most dangerous mission, certainly the highest profile mission in modern history. And the thing that helped him wasn’t toughness, wasn’t aggression.

[17:43] It was clarity of their mission. Gary Chapman, the pastor who wrote the five love languages, his whole concept. Is the assessment, the pause, the answering the questions on the quiz to gain clarity. That’s it. It sounds simple to be honest. It is, but most will never do it, but you will. And I’m giving you this opportunity right now.

[18:07] This is the 500 person productive pause. Challenge. This is your opportunity to put this into action. I’m publishing this episode right now in March and in April, starting April 1st, we’re launching the 30 day productive pause challenge. Actually, it starts right now. So what you can do today, listening to this is do this, go to jimharshawjr.com/500challenge. That’s going to take you to a LinkedIn post. It’ll redirect you right directly to this LinkedIn posts where all you have to say is I’m in that’s it just comment. I’m in that’s the minimum, right? You can do that. All you got to do is that minimum. Now, what I’m going to do is I’m going to share with you.

[18:50] Every single day, I’m going to share with you a brand new productive pause question. Every single one is going to blow your mind, change how you think, blow up your limited thinking, bring you clarity of action, bring you peace of mind, because this is all based on. This concept that I’ve talked about for years called the productive pause.

[19:10] The productive pause is this. It’s a short period of focused reflection around specific questions that leads to clarity of action and peace of mind. And that’s what this 500 challenge is. This is a, a three minute daily productive pause. Right now you can opt in just on the LinkedIn post. And once you do that, you know, I’ll give you an option to opt in to get daily emails if you want daily text messages with the productive pause question.

[19:35] If you want, those are options you’ll have. Once you go to the LinkedIn post, once you go to jimharshawjr.com/500challenge all one word, five zero zero challenge. That’ll take you right there. I’m going to have that link. That link right now is below. If you’re listening to this on. Spotify or Apple podcast, wherever you’re listening in the description.

[19:54] That link is right there. If you find me on any social media, you’ll find that link as well.

[20:00] If you’re getting the emails already in your inbox on Monday, that link, of course is there as well. All right, we’re launching this mid March. The, the kickoff is going to be April 1st. So make sure you opt in in advance of that so you can prepare.

[20:11] And I’m going to share with you that question every day. And here’s the bonus here. Tag a friend or three, and you’re gonna be entered into a drawing. So if you tag up to three friends, when you comment, I’m in, you’ll be entered into a drawing. To win premium access to my community for an entire year, that’s 1, 200.

[20:30] So it’s a hundred dollars a month to join the premium community, which is a no brainer anyway, because you get group coaching calls, you get all kinds, you get thousands of dollars worth of free courses and content that you can’t get anywhere else. But if you opt in, if you go to jimharshawjr.com/500challenge, make a comment that says I’m in, and you tag three friends, you’ll be entered into that drawing to win free premium access for an entire.

[20:54] Year, that is coaching calls with me, coaching calls with my other coaches, business group, coaching, mastermind call, all kinds of, there’s so much in there. This is an absolute no brainer, and you’re going to get access to all of these inner circle coaching calls, networking with this group of high performing men, thousands of dollars worth of courses.

[21:12] So here is your action item. Simply this go to jimharshawjr.com/500challenge and comment. I’m in, I’ll see you there.

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