[00:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You’re going to get two incredible things from today’s podcast episode. Number one, you’re going to get a glimpse inside of my coaching program. What are the experiences that individuals are having? What are the results they’re getting from participating in the coaching program, from being a member of our Pathfinder community?

[00:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And number two, you’re going to get an insight into the transformational power of challenges. There’s lots of challenges out there to explain a unique way that we go about it inside of our program. So here we go. 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.

[00:40] Jim Harshaw Jr.: This is your host Jim Harshaw, Jr. and today I’m bringing you an episode on challenges, right? There’s all kinds of different challenges that are out there that you can do. There’s the whole 30 diet. There’s the 75 hard challenge. There’s all kinds of, of these different challenges. Exodus 90 on and on. Well, The question I’ve always had is what about a challenge for you?

[01:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: One that is specifically designed for the needs that you have, for the habits that you want to build into your life? Well, this is where the idea of On The Path October came from. Now, On The Path October is a term that was coined by one of our Pathfinders, one of my clients, JP, and this was something that we had done for a year or two prior to the giving it that name, but it was this October.

[01:27] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Challenge this one month challenge every year, and it’s a great time of year to do it because you’re heading into the holidays and you kind of want to dial in your habits and routines before you, you know, very easily go off track in November and December. Once Thanksgiving hits and Christmas and New Year’s and everything else that comes along with the holiday season, you can really go off the path with, you know, overeating, over drinking, et cetera, et cetera.

[01:48] Jim Harshaw Jr.: But any time of year, as a matter of fact, right now is the best time of year for you. To do a challenge and you probably clicked on this episode because you want to learn more about challenges. You maybe you’re thinking, okay, I have some habits that I want to dial in. I want to get locked in on a few things.

[02:04] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And there’s some things that I’ve not been consistent with or focused on that I really want to get more consistent with and be more disciplined in. This is how you do it. This is how you go about creating your own challenge. Now I ask everybody just a few questions. There’s five individuals you’re going to hear from here in the next few minutes.

[02:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And I asked them all about their challenge. You know, why they chose the items that they chose to put into their challenge, whether it’s waking up at a certain time or a certain diet or, or different things that they included, you know, journaling, prayer, meditation, whatever it is, uh, I asked them why they chose those and then the results that they got and then what advice they would have for you if you wanted to create your own.

[02:46] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Now, when I interviewed Tim Ferriss, if you want to go back to that interview, it was actually a two part interview to episode 246 and 247. Um, if you don’t know who Tim Ferriss is, he’s five time New York Times, number one, bestselling author and has a great podcast. And it is, does really does some, uh, it’s just some great messages.

[03:03] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And he said this one thing that really stuck with me when I interviewed him. He said, If you were to interview and talk to all the gurus and experts out there about their morning routines and about their habits and try to implement all of those things, you would be doing your morning routine until three o’clock in the afternoon.

[03:21] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So you have to really pick and choose what are the things that you want to focus on? What are the things that are going to be most helpful for you so you can operate at your best? In your personal life, in your professional life, you know, in business and, and, and otherwise. And so this is what this episode is really about is picking the things that you most need.

[03:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And you’re going to hear from five different individuals who are in five different lines of work, have five different family situations. And. You’re going to hear what they chose and you’re going to figure out what is it that you, what is going to be most helpful for you. All right. So let’s get into it.

[03:54] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I’ve got, like I said, five individuals who, and these are individuals who went 30 for 30. They hit their challenge. We track our challenge, right? There’s a public tracker and everybody gets to track it and see what everybody else is doing and how they’re doing. And so. These are the individuals who went 30 for 30.

[04:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: These are the five who actually said, yes, I’m happy to jump on the podcast episode and, you know, be interviewed about this. There were a couple of others who preferred to remain private, but these five were excited to share their journey and their challenges with you. So you’re hearing from folks who, who went 30 for 30.

[04:26] Jim Harshaw Jr.: We have a lot of folks who went, you know, 29 for 30 or 28 for 30. I’ll be honest. I missed one of mine. I like a boy. Five different challenge items. And I missed one of my challenge items one day, and it just, uh, didn’t hit it. Didn’t go 30 for 30. And I learned a lot, got a lot of benefit from doing my own challenge.

[04:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I missed, and by the way, I should challenge, I should share with you what were my challenge items, because you’re going to hear from the five other individuals, what theirs were. So let me share with you what my five challenge items were. Number one. I want to do, I call it a God thing. Some kind of God thing, prayer, devotional, reading the Bible, et cetera.

[05:01] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Something every day related to my faith. Number two was the five minute journal. This is just a, a quick journaling exercise in the morning. And then in the evening, it’s three questions in the morning. It’s what are you grateful for? What are you going to do to make today great? And then writing out affirmations.

[05:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So it’s not really a question, but I’m sort of visualizing these three affirmations and then in the evening, what amazing thing happened today? And what could you have done to make that even better? Very quick, short journaling. That’s actually the one that I missed. Meditation is another one. For me, it’s like one minute, at least one minute.

[05:35] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I’ve got to do at least one minute. Cause for you and for me, for most of us, it’s the start that stops most people from doing whatever that thing is, whether it’s meditation or going for a run or making those sales calls, it’s the start that stops most people. So for me, whenever I can meditate for one minute, I’m usually doing it for two, three, five, 10 or more minutes.

[05:55] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So number one’s a God thing. Number two is a five minute journal. Number three was meditation. Number four was a gratitude text or a note. To one person every day. Actually, I missed one day on that one as well. And then I don’t even know if it was the same day, but I missed one day on that. I think, I think it was the same day.

[06:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And then, um, lastly, I was reading a chapter of the book, The Daily Dad by Ryan Holiday, which is a great book. And a friend of mine gave that to me. Um, so those are my five challenge items, really beneficial for me, probably a little bit heavy, a little bit much to do all of these, to take on all of these every single day.

[06:28] Jim Harshaw Jr.: A lot of these are great five days a week, but I was going for seven days a week, got a tremendous amount of benefit and I really found out how, This stuff, how I’m not too busy to do all this stuff. So many times we think, Oh, I’m too busy to do these things that I want to do consistently. Well, you’re really not.

[06:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And whenever you prioritize these right things, you’ll find a tremendous amount of benefits. So, all right, here we go. Let’s get into the stories and experiences of my clients. Let’s start with. Dan, Dan Mochi. Dan has been a Pathfinder for three years. He is also a Pathfinder coach. He’s certified in coaching my program.

[07:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He’s an amazing entrepreneur. He has his hand in multiple businesses, has done a lot of business coaching over the years, and now he’s a coach in our program, an incredible coach, incredible person, and let’s get into hearing about Dan’s challenge. Dan, welcome back. You are a repeat champion of On The Path October.

[07:19] Dan Mocci: Yes, Jim, how are you?

[07:20] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s good to be back. Good to see you. I want you to take a second and introduce yourself to the listeners, please.

[07:25] Dan Mocci: Absolutely. So like Jim said, I’m a repeat winner on the Path October. My name is Dan Mochi. I am from Connecticut, a father of two girls, 14 and 10, and I operate across three different sectors.

[07:36] Dan Mocci: Um, I am a leader and executive in the construction space up and down the East Coast. In addition to that, I have an ownership stake in an insurance agency here in the New England region. And lastly, but certainly not least, I am a member of Jim’s team as a Pathfinder coach.

[07:51] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, man. Pathfinder coach. Love it.

[07:54] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Great to have you on board. So you crushed the 30 day challenge again this year. Tell us about your challenge that you designed. What were the items that you chose and why did you select them?

[08:03] Dan Mocci: Sure. I designed kind of a multi faceted challenge for myself. First and foremost, I designed a challenge which required me to run on the track, not just run in general, each day for the month of October.

[08:15] Dan Mocci: In addition to running on the track, I Put myself in a position where I had to, um, increase the amount of pushups that I do on a daily basis from 50 to a hundred. And on top of that, I have a app called Sunnyside that tracks my alcohol intake. I’m in a couple of different businesses, as I mentioned, that require me to socialize frequently and lead, uh, group meetings at dinners and things like that.

[08:38] Dan Mocci: So a lot of these, uh, put me in settings where alcohol is present. So I want to be mindful of being able to enjoy myself, but not going overboard in these, uh, in these settings. So. Designed a challenge that limited my alcohol intake for the month of October. And lastly, challenged myself to read a personal development book, um, every single day for the month.

[08:58] Dan Mocci: And, um, I chose the book, uh, QBQ by John Miller. It’s the question behind the question. And, uh, completed the, um, companion workbook that goes along with it.

[09:07] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah.

[09:08] Dan Mocci: Excellent.

[09:08] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So a good range of things from physical to sort of personal growth. So what did you, what kind of benefits did you see, or did you feel, or do you experience during the 30 day challenge by doing all of these every day?

[09:21] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I

[09:21] Dan Mocci: mean, the benefits are, you know, really threefold on the physical side. Um, Ultimately, I ended up feeling better physically from, from increasing the running, taking the running outdoors from an indoor setting had a ton of benefits. In addition to that, increasing the pushups, uh, obviously had a strength contribution.

[09:39] Dan Mocci: But, you know, revisiting John Miller’s book helped me from a standpoint of just, uh, getting versed in personal accountability information that I could also share with my coaching clients, uh, teammates, and workers in other settings as well. And then lastly, I think the most important thing is, Jim, it just put me down a path of keeping promises to myself on a daily basis, which, you know, I can’t overextend the, um, You know what those benefits are.

[10:02] Dan Mocci: Um, just every day waking up, doing that nice and early, getting some wins early in the day. All that, you know, encompasses just a ton of benefits.

[10:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. It just puts you in the positive mind frame and, you know, getting things. It’s the whole, you know, make your bed philosophy, you know, you’re getting positive things done right away.

[10:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And then when you, you create that commitment and you just feel good about yourself and that. Positive feeling creates momentum and you end up doing being more consistent in other areas that there’s just so many compounding benefits. So what advice do you have Dan for the listener who might be thinking, okay, I want to do my own challenge.

[10:34] Jim Harshaw Jr.: What do you feel like worked for you or what did not work or what advice might you give somebody who’s wants to create a challenge for themselves?

[10:40] Dan Mocci: I think the advice is twofold, Jim. I think the first thing people have to focus on, you want to create a challenge that’s an extension of things you’re already a interested in.

[10:50] Dan Mocci: Or be already doing, you know, if you’re already doing 50 pushups a day, level it up to a hundred, if you’re already a runner and you’re running a mile a day, how do we get it to a mile and a half or two? I think where people, and it could be anything, I think where people fall off the path quickly is they create these challenges that while you still make them difficult, you don’t want to make them departures, like I said, from things you’re not accustomed to.

[11:11] Dan Mocci: You know, it’s very easy to quit early, you know, if you’re not a runner and all of a sudden you create a challenge where you’re going to run three miles a day. You get out on day two and especially the certain parts of the country in October, the weather starts dipping. All of a sudden, you don’t complete those two or three miles.

[11:25] Dan Mocci: And now you’re opting out because you know, it’s, it’s a challenge that’s not even relevant to you. So keep your challenges as a, something that’s an extension of what you’re doing, something relevant that you’re trying to achieve, and then lastly, especially the physical components of a challenge, I always suggest you get these things done early in the day.

[11:42] Dan Mocci: Not to check the box, but because the type of people that complete these challenges, they’re often business people or their parents, or they’re people that are in some realm of life going to encounter challenges throughout the day. So if you start your day building and then overcoming some artificial resistance, it gives you a, it sets you up throughout your day to just, you’re already in the momentum of overcoming challenges.

[12:05] Dan Mocci: You have the momentum of dealing with obstacles and resistance. That carries over into the rest of your day. So keep them relevant, keep making extensions of things that you’re already doing or likely to do. And then lastly, bang them out early so you can get that momentum and keep that thing going throughout the day.

[12:20] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. Relevant. That’s such a key word there because there’s these other challenges that are out there. And, you know, some of those things are relevant to everybody. Some of those things are not relevant to certain people. And Nick, we all need different things. That’s the whole idea behind this creativity, behind creating your own challenge and relevant is different.

[12:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Just, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. That’s why we do this.

[12:40] Dan Mocci: Yeah. And I think you, you hit the other thing on that, Jim, you use the word own. I think people have a habit of falling into creating the challenges that, well, what does society tell me that I should be doing? And you got to make it your own, which that’s, you know, in turn keeps it relevant, right?

[12:55] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So Dan, what has been your experience as a Pathfinder? You’ve been a Pathfinder for several years now, since early in the pandemic. Uh, what has been your experience?

[13:04] Dan Mocci: Those words, right? Discipline, accountability, community. What’s unique about it is, um, when I came to join the community as a client of yours directly, you know, I was operating at an 8 out of 10 in the key areas of my life.

[13:15] Dan Mocci: I wasn’t failing, but there was another level. And what’s neat is my experience was, I was able to level up from 8 to 10 in those areas through the work that we do here and the discipline attached to it and the accountability and the exercises. But then what’s neat is you get to redefine Once you get there, because the system is implementable, not just once or not just through the initial stages of the program, it’s lifelong, you know, and then the duality of it is I get to be a practitioner as a, you know, coaching client of yours directly.

[13:49] Dan Mocci: On a daily and monthly basis, but by being a coach, there’s a duality to it, right? I’m, I’m practicing it almost double. So my experience has been, um, been tremendous. It’s, it’s lifted my life up and it’s allowed me to lift up the lives of others.

[14:03] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, Dan, I consider you part of my own environment of excellence.

[14:06] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I just watch how you live your life and the consistency and the focus and the things that you do focus on, whether it’s your family or your health or your business. And, uh, you’re, you’re part of my environment of excellence. Um, Grateful to have you as a, as a client, as a friend, and as a coach on our team, lifting up other Pathfinders.

[14:22] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So great job, keep up the great work and congrats on crushing it again. And on the Path October Challenge.

[14:28] Dan Mocci: Thanks. Thanks, Jim. I can’t wait to be sitting back here, uh, having another conversation like this, uh, a year from now. I know that’s what

[14:33] Jim Harshaw Jr.: happens. That’s right. Let’s plan on it. Pencil it in.

[14:36] Dan Mocci: You can pencil it in right now.

[14:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Okay. That was Dan Mochi. Like I said, so much to learn from Dan. He’s so consistent, so locked in on his, his goals and his, his habits and routines. All right. Let’s move over to Tim, Tim Lynch. Tim has been a pathfinder for about a year and a half. Has had just an incredible journey in his life. And is he just an incredible human being?

[14:56] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He came to the retreat last year. So I got to meet him in person. He’s coming to the retreat again this year. I’m just so stoked to be around somebody of his caliber and just kind of who he is. That’s such an authentic guy, so encouraging to others. And he’s just doing inspiring things, just raises the level of everybody else who he’s around.

[15:15] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So here is Tim and Tim’s challenge. Tim, great having you, man. This is, uh, round two for you, am I right? Tim,

[15:22] Tim Lynch: it’s good to see you. It is round two. It’s the second year in a row. Second

[15:25] Jim Harshaw Jr.: year in a row.

[15:26] Tim Lynch: What is it, about a year and a half? I’ve been a Pathfinder for about a year and a half now.

[15:31] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. I believe.

[15:33] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, let’s start with the easy question here first, maybe, then. What has been your experience as a Pathfinder? Tell us where you were. And then what changed and where you’re at now, how things have changed for you.

[15:45] Tim Lynch: So I am an entrepreneur and it’s like, I know you like to use the term. I’m a serial entrepreneur and I have a job as well.

[15:53] Tim Lynch: And I’m a, I’m a father and I’m a husband. So I have all this awesome stuff going on in my life. And I need to compartmentalize some of it. And a friend of mine mentioned to me a while back, um, about high achievers and everybody having coaches. And he used, obviously, Michael Jordan and Kobe and professional athletes.

[16:16] Tim Lynch: But then if you break it down smaller than that, There’s a lot of professional people, a lot of entrepreneurs, especially, have coaches, have mastermind groups. And the more books I read, the more podcasts I listen to, everybody’s talking about mastermind. So this might be the path for me. And then I found you.

[16:36] Tim Lynch: Uh, by accident, I found, uh, Reveal Your Path by accident, listening to Jack Canfield podcast when you, you had, uh, Jack Canfield on, and then you do the, you know, would you like to call with me? That thing, I was like, oh yeah, give it a shot, why not, you know, and then things start, things start to open up for me, and I start getting a little bit more direction.

[16:54] Tim Lynch: Now, granted, the basis of Reveal Your Path, With writing your goals down and having micro goals and having stuff broken down into self-wealth, health and so on. That’s familiar to me because I’ve been on some kind of a path of growth for almost 20 years now. And in the very beginning, Of me changing and starting to peel back the onion, I wrote a goal list down.

[17:22] Tim Lynch: Now, it wasn’t as detailed as it is now, and the goals were different. One of my goals 20 years ago was just to get my driver’s license back. I didn’t have a driver’s license. So small things like that were on the goal list, but I still have it. And then leading into one of my challenges for the 30-day On the Path of October was a gratitude challenge.

[17:41] Tim Lynch: You write down three gratitudes every day. So I have a gratitude list from back then too, that I keep adding to. The top thing on my gratitude list was clean socks. The very first, I still have that gratitude list now, I still have goosebumps saying it. Clean socks. So. My gratitude list is changing. My goal lists are changing.

[18:04] Tim Lynch: With Reveal Your Path, now I have, I don’t have a, I have a spreadsheet, you know, and I, and micro goals, but, and I have accountability. And I think the most important thing that I’m getting from being a part of this group is that I’m around A bunch of people with like minds that are trying to get better, incrementally better.

[18:26] Tim Lynch: And I have access to people now that I would not have access to in my regular life in West Eppard, New Jersey. You know, we have people coast to coast. Like, I did a walk when we were on the retreat. I did a walk at 6 o’clock in the morning with a guy who played golf in Saudi Arabia. Like, when am I going to get that experience again?

[18:44] Tim Lynch: You know, and, you know, and I, and I got to sit down at, uh, our friend Mike, I got to sit down outside on the porch looking over this ranch and have a, you know, this guy’s one of the top lawyers in, in the D. C. area, in Virginia area, and I got to have a deep, long conversation with him, and I just don’t know where else I’ll get that, and, um, it’s making me a better person, it’s making me a better father, it’s making me a better, you know, Husband and it’s making me a better employer.

[19:10] Tim Lynch: It’s making me a better person.

[19:12] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, you’re making us a better person too, man. Really grateful to have you a part of this. I mean, honest to goodness, Tim, it is just the energy you bring and not to mention, you know, knowledge, wisdom, and experience that that’s like you bring so much of that, but just who you are is a genuine and authentic.

[19:26] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s just, just one of the ingredients that make this community so amazing. So thank you.

[19:30] Tim Lynch: Yeah, it’s my pleasure. I’m looking forward to what the future could, could bring.

[19:35] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. So Tim, let’s shift over into the main questions here. Tim, take a minute and introduce yourself. So my name is Tim Lynch. I live in

[19:41] Tim Lynch: West Deptford, New Jersey.

[19:43] Tim Lynch: It’s in Gloucester County, New Jersey, right outside Philly. Go birds. And, uh, I am a serial entrepreneur and I’ve been a union stagehand for about 20 years. And I’m trying to get out of the stagehand business and onto philanthropy. That’s my goal. Yeah. Love it.

[20:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, you crushed your challenge again. This is the second year in a row.

[20:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You went 30 for 30 in our October challenge and with the Pathfinders. Tell us about the challenge you designed and why you chose those items.

[20:14] Tim Lynch: So, at first, uh, the challenge was, like, the biggest challenge I had was in the middle of October, I was taking my family to Disney on a vacation. So, I had to get a little bit fancy with my challenge.

[20:26] Tim Lynch: So, the first thing is gratitude. I need to start my day with gratitude, so I put that on the top of the list. Write three gratitudes every single day and don’t miss a day. That really sets the tone for my day. Also, reading is really big for me. Easy to do, easy not to do. You know, I stole that, uh, thing from Jim.

[20:43] Tim Lynch: Easy to do, easy not to do. So, I put reading. I wanted to read 10 pages a day. And, uh, I got to knock down the Shane Parrish book, which was really cool. And one outside activity last year’s challenge was, uh, I rode my bike 350 miles, I think in, in the month of October, but I wasn’t getting out on the bike as much for whatever reason.

[21:06] Tim Lynch: So I just wanted to make it, make sure I was outside doing an activity and, uh, being at Disney for part of that month made it really easy, you know, to take care of that. Yeah. And also one of the other part of my challenge was, um, to read my I am statement every morning, an affirmation. Become Stuart Smalley.

[21:24] Tim Lynch: And read the affirmation. Saturday

[21:27] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Night Live reference for if anyone who doesn’t get that, just Google, YouTube it, you’ll find it. It’s great.

[21:32] Tim Lynch: It’s there. It’s doing some homework. Yeah. But I have my, I have my I am statement written and a couple other statements written on three by five cards that I keep in my journal with me and I, and I try to look at them every day now, but I made that part of my challenge to make sure that I hold myself accountable to it.

[21:49] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So what were the benefits that you saw, felt, experienced?

[21:54] Tim Lynch: Always the benefits last year, this year, and whenever I hold myself accountable, so, um, the consistency is an attaboy for me. Like it’s a personal self pat on the back where I, I realized that not only can I make a commitment to myself to make myself a little bit better, but I could follow through on that commitment.

[22:14] Tim Lynch: And then I, I deserve. To have great stuff in my life. So why not do, why not take these steps? Because they’re going to be beneficial to you. So, and they are, they always are. And you know, well, especially being men, once you get to be a father and a boss and that kind of stuff, the attaboys don’t come as much, but they still, you know, that’s why celebrating wins for the week, same thing, the attaboy, you know, we need an attaboy and, and, um, to be consistent like that, to get to the 30 days and say, no, I did that.

[22:47] Tim Lynch: Um, means a lot.

[22:49] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, it does. And it also proves that you can do these things consistently and not to mention the benefits that you get from those. So for the listener who’s thinking, I want to do a challenge myself, I’m looking at a 30 day challenge. What advice do you have for the listener who might want to do their own, like what worked for you?

[23:08] Jim Harshaw Jr.: What didn’t work? What do you think are the things that they should be thinking about going into their own challenge?

[23:12] Tim Lynch: So, the best piece of advice I can have is start. Start, write it down, make it real, put it in front of you, and make a commitment to yourself. Even if it’s small, you know, of, I don’t have, what is there, 40 or 50 people that, uh, got involved in this challenge this, this year, and, uh, there, all the way across the board, you could think of different things and challenges from going to bed on time and, you know, burpees and, you know, some are, some are physical, some are not physical, some are spiritual, whatever it is, it’s personal to you.

[23:50] Tim Lynch: Be consistent, but start.

[23:52] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Hey man, it’s the start that stops most people just get started. Tim, thanks for sharing. Likewise, man. Thank you. All right. So that was Tim Lynch, incredible guy, as you could hear from that, that conversation, let’s go over to Ryan, Ryan Renfree. So Ryan has been a Pathfinder for almost three years and he’s a marketing executive and an entrepreneur.

[24:14] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He talks about hero gear. His business is Hero Gear. If you go to shop hero gear. com, it’s really cool. He’s got this weighted workout suit, pretty incredible product, but just a driven dude, we call him Rennergy. That’s his nickname. Cause he brings so much energy. You’re going to hear it in his voice. And he had a great challenge.

[24:33] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It was very simple. Very effective. So let’s go and listen to Ryan. By the way, Ryan was our very first ever Pathfinder of the year. He’s one, he’s kind of client of the year in our community. We vote for the Pathfinder of the year. Ryan was the, the inaugural one a couple of years ago. All right. So here we go.

[24:47] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Let’s listen to Ryan. Ryan, take a second and introduce yourself, please.

[24:51] Ryan Rendfrey: All right. My name is Ryan Rennergy Renfrey. Friends know me as, uh, as Ryan, but my true friends know me as Rennergy. Uh, I am a truly blessed man. I married my high school sweetheart, uh, Jackie, uh, dating and been together for 26 years, married 15 this past summer.

[25:08] Ryan Rendfrey: And, uh, I’ve got four outstanding kids, uh, two boys and two girls, Rush, Crew, Avalon and Isla. And I reside in South Jersey.

[25:18] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And for reference, for the listener, every year in our community, we do a Pathfinder of the Year. We started this two years ago, and Ryan Rennergy, he is lovingly known as Rennergy in our community.

[25:30] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He is the first ever Pathfinder of the Year. So you’re hearing from a good one here, folks. Ryan, tell us about your challenge. You crushed it. Tell us, you know, what your items were and why did you choose those? Yeah. So let’s

[25:43] Ryan Rendfrey: talk about that real quick, Jim. Right. So I owed this challenge a little, a little revenge from last year.

[25:48] Ryan Rendfrey: I had a challenge last year, right? Cause obviously I’m part of the program. I failed it in regards to the, the 30 days that we had, but I wound up achieving it. So my, my challenge last year was to do a hundred pushups, a hundred air squats and a hundred core exercises every day. I failed it within the 30 days.

[26:03] Ryan Rendfrey: It bled into November and I was able to complete that. I’ve been on this journey, right, for, you know, to really build a mental discipline muscle over the last year and a half by going on streaks. So I really was very excited about that. So, uh, so what, uh, let’s talk about the why, right? You know, why I’ve, I’ve struggled to like a lot of people kind of struggle.

[26:25] Ryan Rendfrey: You know, the grind of life is, is tough. And, uh, when you got a lot on your plate, it can be difficult to wake up in the morning. Right. So I wanted to make sure that. Then my challenge for On The Path October this year was just very, very laser focused. And then my challenge was to, to get up before six o’clock in the morning, every single day, right?

[26:45] Ryan Rendfrey: Not just Monday through Friday. The biggest caveat there was on the weekends as well too. So, and there’s times where, Hey, I set the alarm clock. I’m a goat snoozer. Man, ain’t that snooze, whatever it is. And when your body wakes up, I think it’s important to listen to your body. Hey, you got plenty of, you got Get up and kind of start your day.

[27:02] Ryan Rendfrey: So, but there’s plenty of times where I don’t do that. So I wanted to make sure that I did that. So the challenge specifically was to get up every single day, not just during the week, but on the weekends before six o’clock in the morning. Uh, so I kept it one, one task, very, very simple, but still very challenging.

[27:18] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And for the listener. You got to figure out the why behind it. And Ryan has a very specific why. I mean, certainly, you know, at the end, if you kind of chase that, why to the very end, it’s probably family and his faith, but he’s building a business. He’s got a business called hero gear, and you could go to shop hero gear.

[27:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: com and you’ll, you’ll see what he’s, he’s designed is, is he called it’s, it’s called the super suit. It’s a weighted workout suit. It’s a full body weighted workout suit. It’s incredible. I’ve tried it. I’ve worn it. I’ve used it. And, and he’s building this incredible business and he’s got this energy behind us, what we call Rennergy, and so there’s a why behind it.

[27:57] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Like there’s a reason for him to wake up when he wakes up early, when he, you know, he’s on time, he starts his day right, then he can execute all the things that, that he wants to do to live out his ideal life, you know, the version of life that he is creating. So, so Ryan, what benefits did you see or feel or experience in doing this and waking up?

[28:18] Jim Harshaw Jr.: That you’re set time every morning for 30 straight days.

[28:21] Ryan Rendfrey: Yeah. Well, you know what? It’s amazing when you commit to doing something, you make those small promises right to yourself every single day. And, and I, when I fail to make those, to, to make, to fulfill those small promises, right, you know, you kind of feel, you feel a little guilt.

[28:35] Ryan Rendfrey: So, you know, the first benefit was like. I check the box. I win right, right out of the gate. First thing in the morning, right? That’s why I wanted it to be first thing in the morning. So it’s like, okay, six o’clock. I got to get up. If it’s 5 59, I literally was up out of bed. Sometimes it was 5 30. Sometimes it was five o’clock, right?

[28:52] Ryan Rendfrey: You know, so it varied depending on how I got my sleep. I slept better, right? Uh, I knew how important it was. Now I’m getting older. I’m 43 now, even though I still feel very young, but sleep to me is really, it’s a massive form of recovery. And that’s kind of see it. I see it in my, my point of life with, with four kids, the grind of life and everything else, you know, working a job and then trying to get a company up and running as well too.

[29:15] Ryan Rendfrey: So I’ve got to be a hundred percent. Throughout the entire day. And that’s just having those energy levels high. So being able to, uh, to feel good, go to bed at a decent time, uh, wake up in the mor uh, early in the morning, uh, you know, like, it, it just, it just felt good. And I think at the end of the day. To be able to do hard things, right?

[29:33] Ryan Rendfrey: There’s so much science. I know Joe DeSena, founder of Spartan Races, anyone who’s ever done a Spartan race before, but anyone who’s ever done anything hard before, when you do hard things, it makes it feel good. So at the end of that, and actually I kept the streak going for 38 days before I broke it. So, so 38 days, I, I, I had the, had the streak.

[29:53] Ryan Rendfrey: And, um, it just felt good. It’s just like to be able to, to, to know that I did that. And, uh, I’m also really big. One of my favorite quotes out there is, uh, and my lead talks about caught, not taught, right? So when it comes to raising good kids, you want them to catch what you’re doing. Right. So I would always remind them, uh, I was up six o’clock in the morning, you know, now, now there’s a caveat to this challenge here, Jim, because I’m going to remind you, right?

[30:13] Ryan Rendfrey: So five days into this, all was good until Santa came early. And we adopted two puppies. We rescued two puppies. That was the gift. So you want to talk about accountability partners, right? I got two puppies, three months old, four months old at that time, right. In early October that I’m like, look, if I don’t get them out of the crate, I’m probably going to have a wet bed.

[30:34] Ryan Rendfrey: Then I’m going to have to worry about washing or what mess am I going to have? So I’m like, get up before six o’clock, get the dogs out, right. You don’t get them fed. So,

[30:42] Jim Harshaw Jr.: so there you go for the listener. Just, just get, just get puppies as accountability partners.

[30:47] Ryan Rendfrey: They got me up, man.

[30:50] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So, so what advice, first of all, I love the idea of start like that is so important.

[30:55] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Starting your day early, the whole concept of make your bed, like start your day early, get that win and you start well rested, you know, waking up on time starts with going to bed on time. And so if you go to bed on time, you wake up on time, you feel well rested, you start your day, like everything in the day just goes better.

[31:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I’m not saying that everything’s going to be perfect in your day, but. for the listener. This habit is so critical and, and sets off your day on, on the right foot. So Ryan, what advice do you have for the listener who might be thinking about doing their own challenge? Like what has worked for you? What’s not worked for you?

[31:28] Jim Harshaw Jr.: What advice do you have for the listener?

[31:29] Ryan Rendfrey: Hey, you know, I’ve, I’ve. Participated in and I’ve exposed myself to so many different types of challenges out there and there’s some unbelievable ones. I’ve done the P90X before, back in the day when Tony Horton first came, you know, on board to the fitness scene.

[31:43] Ryan Rendfrey: What really got me into this challenge this year was, uh, was Andy Furcello’s 75 hard, right? So I think being able to, to really kind of, you got to get out of your comfort zone, right? Get uncomfortable, get out of your comfort zone and create a task that you know that you can, you can achieve, but you know that it’s also, it’s a challenge.

[32:00] Ryan Rendfrey: So I’ve been really, like I said earlier, I’ve been on this mission of building this mental discipline muscle. And, uh, you know, last year I started, I’ve got some big streaks that I’ve been working on here. So I’m 176 days in a row, right, with cold therapy, either cold plunge. Or a cold shower. And, uh, in Jersey here, there was plenty of natural ice, uh, in my, in my ice bath, which sits outside this morning, really, really freaking cold.

[32:25] Ryan Rendfrey: Right. You know, so that’s one that I’ve gotten. It’s taken, I’ve, I’ve had so much growth as a person, right. You know, so I really embrace, embrace these challenges in a true. I truly embrace this one too. 176 days in a row, right? So, the failure that I had in last year has allowed me to do 176 days in a row.

[32:45] Ryan Rendfrey: 100 pushups, 100 air squats, and 100 core exercises. And there are plenty of days where it might be 10 o’clock, 11. 30 at night, whatever it is, I still got 50 more left. I don’t want to do it. But the reason why I don’t want to do it is the reason why I do it. Indeed, become non negotiable, right? You know, and then the biggest streak that I have, uh, still, still going strong is 506 days in a row without a drop of alcohol.

[33:08] Ryan Rendfrey: And that’s been, that’s been truly life changing. I know that streak will come to an end. I just can’t, I can’t break it yet. So my advice is you got to start small. You got to start small because stacking things one at a time, here you go. A post it note. If I took each one of these post it notes off, right, you’d have a single piece of paper, but together here, I’ve got a block, right?

[33:30] Ryan Rendfrey: So envision a stack of post it notes and start creating your own stack. And before you know it, you’ve got something tangible that you can really see that you can, that you can really be proud of saying, look, you know, I did that. And if it was something that was hard, uh, then, then, you know, Kudos to you.

[33:44] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Good job, man. Love, uh, love the, you being a role model in the community and, and love that you were able to share what you learned with the Listers here. Good job, man.

[33:53] Ryan Rendfrey: Dude, I love it. It’s an amazing community, Jim. You know, you, uh, you’ve just, you’ve been a true angel in my life. I gotta, I gotta thank Ruben Gonzalez, our good mutual friend here.

[34:02] Ryan Rendfrey: You know, I gotta give him a lot of credit because, uh, you know, without him, I would have hoped that God would have connected us, right? But I’ve had the opportunity now to be in this community for, for quite some time.

[34:13] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, we’re grateful to have you. So bonus question for you. What has been your experience as a Pathfinder?

[34:18] Ryan Rendfrey: Yeah, I believe it’s been three years now. I’m coming up on my third year in this program. And for anyone that really wants to level up in life, you gotta find a coach, right? And Someone who provides value to your life, right? You’ve got common ground, you have things in common. But someone who’s also really going to challenge you.

[34:37] Ryan Rendfrey: But you gotta find like, you gotta find a community of like minded people, right? Life is so hard. We all have amazing friends. I’ve been so blessed. I’ve got unbelievable friendships that have lasted literally a lifetime. But some of my closest friends are people from the RYP community. People that I can text.

[34:54] Ryan Rendfrey: We were using school now, Jim. So big, you know, big props to you with really, you know, Reinventing the program and giving more accessibility, right? To not just individual teams, but the entire RYP team community for people to interact that are on different teams now. So it’s iron sharpens iron, right? So I’ve really been able to benefit by obviously having you as a coach.

[35:17] Ryan Rendfrey: And finding like minded people that can really help me take, take my game in life to a whole new level. I think that’s, that’s been one of the biggest things. And one other thing too, is it’s helped me find like my true identity. Uh, I talk about core, core values, right? And I know it’s one of, it’s the first step in your process and, and I’ve got my, my, my core values here, right?

[35:39] Ryan Rendfrey: Flow game, right? And I’ll tell everyone what it is. You obviously a quick background on the exercise. So everyone, you find out what your core values are. To the core. What makes you, you, right? And, uh, and I took it one step further. I had my core values. Obviously, Jim recommends coming up with an acronym.

[35:55] Ryan Rendfrey: Keep it top of mind. I took it one step further. I made all of mine action oriented and I got Flow Game. It truly was life changing. If I ever do get a tattoo, Jim, I don’t have any tattoos yet, but someday I will. It might be Flow Game as the first one. Love it. Either that, either that or the Hero Gear, right?

[36:10] Ryan Rendfrey: You know, I’ll get that somewhere on the body, but. Flow Game for me, they’re my core values. It stands for follow God, love my family, one life, work out, give back, advise, make a difference, and enjoy everything. Right? So, just being able to get that. I got custom beads because I’m able to share who I am in a very short period of time to strangers all the time, and really make a difference.

[36:30] Ryan Rendfrey: Make a lasting impression, right, on people. You know, the true definition of Renergy is it’s a positive force of energy to make a difference, right? That’s what Renergy is, so I’m always here to bring the Renergy. And one of my missions in life, if not my greatest mission, is to try to bring Renergy to everyone, right?

[36:46] Ryan Rendfrey: People that I know and people that I don’t know. And if I can be the best experience or the best interaction, no matter how long or short it is, In that day, then I feel like I’m doing something good, you know, making a difference.

[36:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Love it, man. Keep up the good work. I just looked it up. It’s been three and a half years, March of 2021.

[37:03] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So three and a half years. Let’s

[37:04] Ryan Rendfrey: go, dude. Let’s go, man. Oh man. I’m so excited.

[37:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Great things happening. Great things coming.

[37:11] Ryan Rendfrey: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Jim, for all that you do. It’s truly amazing and just looking forward to continuing to contribute to the community. And then I’ve got, I can’t hold it here because I would get detached.

[37:22] Ryan Rendfrey: I should have brought the award. Being voted by my peers as the Pathfinder of the Year. You know, the first truly. Pathfinder Year is one of the greatest life achievements. I’ve got so many things that God has planned for me in the future that I know will absolutely happen, but I hold that award very near and dear to my heart because there’s such an amazing group of people that are a part of that to achieve, to receive that from my friends in this community.

[37:50] Ryan Rendfrey: It just, it, it’s It means the world to me.

[37:53] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, you mean the world to us. Keep up the good work, brother.

[37:56] Ryan Rendfrey: Thank you, dude.

[37:57] Jim Harshaw Jr.: All right. That was Ryan Rennergy, Renndfree. Let’s go to Peter, Peter Leventis. So Peter is a, he’s a longtime friend. We were friends in college and then we disconnected for, I don’t know, probably 20 years and, and then we reconnected.

[38:12] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So it’s really cool to get back in touch with Peter and he’s been a Pathfinder now for a year and a half. Very successful guy, as you’re going to hear. And he is, you know, just trying to maximize his potential in all areas. So let’s listen in on Peter’s challenge. So Peter, take a second and introduce

[38:28] Peter Leventis: yourself, please.

[38:29] Peter Leventis: Yeah, my name’s Peter Leventis. I live in Columbia, South Carolina. I’ve been with Pathfinders for about a year and a half now, and I’m an attorney. I’ve been married 19 years, have three dogs, very small.

[38:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So your challenge, so you crushed the 30 day challenge. Tell us about the challenge. Tell us what you chose and why.

[38:50] Peter Leventis: Yeah. So I had two things. One was to do 200 sit ups a day or really 200 core exercises. So leg lifts, whatever, and to focus and really think, ponder, philosophize about my finances for specified period of time per day. So not, you know, check the stock market, look at my credit card balance, but actually think and focus on my finances for a period of time per day.

[39:13] Peter Leventis: And I chose it because the sit ups, my joke was, cause I’m always going to do them tomorrow, right? Or once I finished working out, I’m like, well, I’ve already worked out. I’m not going to do the sit ups. So it was because I find them onerous and don’t do them that I chose to make that part of my challenge.

[39:27] Peter Leventis: Some people might find 200 sit ups a lot per day. Some might find it not as many, but. Uh, for me it was a good number because it was hard but not impossible. And the finances because that’s an area of my life, I mean I’m blessed to make a good living in that, but Uh, it’s almost like if you say you don’t care about money, that’s like saying I don’t care about my health, you know, it’d be foolish.

[39:47] Peter Leventis: So, yeah, but I am not where I want to be financially and I thought, you know, why? Like I make a good salary, but it’s because I don’t focus much on it, so I really focused on The ideas of building wealth and a number of answers I wanted to have before the end of the month. So I spent a lot of time just thinking on my finances.

[40:02] Peter Leventis: I’m taking a lot of action now, but those are my two challenges per day.

[40:06] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And that’s the goal is like to make this yours. You said, you know, the sit ups, some people that’s a lot, some people it’s not many, like these are yours. This is the whole idea behind On The Path October is to have your own unique 30 day challenge.

[40:18] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And I love how one of yours was physical and one of yours was thinking, you know, two very different things that you wanted to do more of.

[40:26] Peter Leventis: Yeah. And, uh, you know, when I looked, so I did two things to prepare. One was I’d asked you to do the podcast from the successful finishers before so I could hear what they did and, you know, and tips that they used, which I used some of them during the month.

[40:39] Peter Leventis: And then also I looked at other people’s challenges and some of the ones that were from last year. And, you know, some of them were like, read, read 10 pages of a book per day. Which I’m a really omnivorous reader. Like to me, that doesn’t seem like much, right? Like, so, like I said, some people, 200 subs might not seem like much, but then I thought if you’re not doing, or if you’ve got a book that you’ve wanted to read since two vacations ago, if you read the 10 pages per day, that’s 15 pages, that’s 300, 450 pages, that’ll finish most books and you’ll have done what you wanted to do, but hadn’t been doing for a long time.

[41:11] Peter Leventis: So it focused to me on sort of that incremental change. Thing that is so important. So almost like the sort of Nike, just do it. Like at some point you got to quit thinking and take action. And, uh, so that was a, a big part to me. And two were, I started to prepare beforehand. So it’s like, Oh, you’re not going to drink for a month or not drink coffee for a month.

[41:30] Peter Leventis: Uh, my coach, Craig Fullen was like, you know, prepare beforehand. So I actually started about a week beforehand. I was not successful in the first week, but that was the trial, right? So I was just prepping. And. That was really important to get it done because it gave me like what my early pitfalls would have been and then the other was If you talk about abstaining from something a day at a time like oh I’m gonna do it one day at the time make it sometimes it inspired me to go.

[41:55] Peter Leventis: Hey, I’m doing 6, 000 setups I’m gonna sit down and do my 6, 000 setups because that’s what I was doing by the end of the month and and other days I had to like cram it in between doing a tough chore or something and Just do a set of of 10 or 15 at the time. The other was, uh, one from one of the guys that was successful last year was, he said he was going to do something at the gym, like 25 curls.

[42:17] Peter Leventis: But he said it wasn’t 26, and it wasn’t 25. And obviously, throughout the month, the setups got easier. And at one point, I was like, you know, why don’t I just do 300 today? And I was like, no, no, because then I’m going to do 300, be a little more sore, and go, okay, well, I’ll skip today, but if I do 300 tomorrow, and I was like, no, no, the goal was.

[42:37] Peter Leventis: 200 per day. I’m sticking with it. So,

[42:40] Jim Harshaw Jr.: yeah, and you might do 300 and be like, well, tomorrow the standards now 300. And I, now I have to do 300. Now there’s more friction to getting started and you may be less likely to do it. So,

[42:51] Peter Leventis: so that was, uh, that was good. And with, with the finance, you know, thought a lot more just on thinking, like some mornings I did it with earplugs in.

[42:58] Peter Leventis: I realized at the end of a very long day of work, which a lot of my work is very mental, it was tougher to do. And, but help me just thinking in general, blocking out the emails, making sure I put the cell phone like out of view, you know, and doing some of the tips. So, so with deep work that I do in the future, it made me think, you know, I can do this, I can plan this out.

[43:18] Peter Leventis: and do this. Whereas, uh, that’s a lot of times just the friction of getting going. So talk about the benefits. What were the benefits you experienced? Yeah. So one was, you know, I’m, I’m actually still doing, uh, about two or 300 setups every other day now. And it’s gotten a little, I built a little bit of a muscle habit with it.

[43:36] Peter Leventis: I think my genes got slightly smaller in the past, like six weeks now that I’ve, I’ve been, Uh, keeping up with it and on the finances side, you know, I, I don’t meditate, but you and I talked about this, about just kind of pulling back focus is the practice of, of meditation in some ways. And, uh, so I built up a lot of energy towards my finances cause I was making all these lists of what I’m going to do and kind of thinking back to how I got my money habits and, and my philosophy on if, if time is money and I want to save time, I actually have worked on getting more organized, you know, or if, in the long run.

[44:09] Peter Leventis: Taking care of my health is a big part of it. You know, it’s like, I’m almost like, man, I got to floss and lose some weight and eat less sugar. You know, that’ll save me money in the long run. So I spent a lot of time thinking about other ways to work a problem. And it, but it built up a lot of energy, just that, that thinking and focus.

[44:23] Peter Leventis: Like I’m, I’m gung ho and geared up to knock out a really big to do list on my, on my calendar. On my finances,

[44:29] Jim Harshaw Jr.: you know? Yeah. Nice. So what advice would you have for somebody else, another listener who’s saying, I want to do my own challenge? Like what worked for you? What didn’t work for you? What advice would you give to somebody else who wants to take this on?

[44:41] Peter Leventis: Yeah. Briefly don’t bite off more than you can chew, but make it hard enough. You know, you’re going to go for 30 days, 10 setups a day for me, right? Nothing. 500 a day probably would have been killed over by day three with a sore stomach. Make it doable and then set yourself up for success. So set the alarms on your phone, try it for a few days first, you know, prepare and maybe talk to somebody else who’s done it.

[45:04] Peter Leventis: If somebody else has done it and you want to try to do one of these challenges, get some advice from them as to how they succeeded with it.

[45:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And you can go back and listen to episode 435 from last year, which is where we interviewed last year’s winners. So this is just a good way to get more feedback, you know, in addition to this episode.

[45:21] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So Peter, last question, what has been your experience as a Pathfinder? You know, it’s been

[45:27] Peter Leventis: awesome. I’ve loved it, but, but going back to the, just do it, you gotta do the program. So it could be the most expensive rowing machine or bike that you take out to the dump and throw out if you don’t use it. But if you do it, I’ve had a lot of success that I may have had anyway, but I had it now.

[45:42] Peter Leventis: So I didn’t lose a lot of weight five years from now or work on my finances two years from now or forgive somebody, which was one big thing that I did in Pathfinders a long time from now. I did it now. I healed that relationship now. So I would say you got to just do it, but it’s very, it is set to each individual person.

[46:00] Peter Leventis: And that’s a great thing too. You don’t have to be, you know, whatever level you come in at, you’re, you’re, if you use it, you’re going to get better.

[46:07] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s a unique experience for everybody. So awesome, Peter. Yeah, have

[46:11] Peter Leventis: a great day.

[46:13] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Lastly, Lisa, Lisa Curley. She is the only female currently in the program. We really focus on men we’ve shifted over the past year plus to, to focusing on coaching men.

[46:22] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Just be not because we, we don’t do well coaching women or do we want to coach women? It’s there are plenty of women, female coaches out there who specifically coach females. Um, and I think we’re, we’re best suited for coaching men, but Lisa is. Awesome. She’s been to every retreat. She’s been a Pathfinder for almost four years.

[46:39] Jim Harshaw Jr.: As you hear, there’s a lot of longevity here. You know, when people become Pathfinders, they stick with it for the longterm because, uh, because it works and, and it’s worked really well for Lisa. So she works, uh, in government and politics and has had a really incredible experience as a Pathfinder. And let’s listen in on her challenge.

[46:57] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Lisa, welcome back to Time Champion of On the Path October. Good to see you.

[47:04] Lisa Kerle: Good to see you, Jim.

[47:06] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Can you give, give us a quick background, a quick intro for our listeners, please?

[47:11] Lisa Kerle: So my name is Lisa Carley, and I live in a little town just north of Pittsburgh, about an hour, Claring County, and my background’s mostly in politics.

[47:21] Lisa Kerle: So I ran a state race, lost that race, and then entered a presidential campaign this cycle, so.

[47:30] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah, excellent. And long time Pathfinder. So your challenge this year, Lisa, you crushed it once again, just like you did last year. Can you tell us about your challenge? Tell us about the challenge that you designed, what you chose and why you chose those things.

[47:46] Lisa Kerle: So compared to last year, my challenge was, A lot more simple, but I needed something for myself. So, as I mentioned, I have spent the last six months, five months on a presidential campaign, and it is definitely, was most definitely the most challenging thing I’ve done. It was very intense. And in the process, even going back to January, when I ran my own state race.

[48:17] Lisa Kerle: I really started letting things fall that I had built myself up to having such a good routine on, but my time was literally so limited. I was doing about 16 hour days. So the one thing that I really did not want to let go and can control an hour was my faith. So, made sure I was still at mass each week.

[48:43] Lisa Kerle: And then, for the challenge, I made sure I added back in that devotion time. So, when I went to bed at night, I knew that my devotion would be about 10 minutes, and I knew mentally, like, I could give myself that. And then crash until 6am the next day. So that’s why I chose my challenge for, you know, those 2 reasons.

[49:08] Lisa Kerle: It was very controllable, very doable, and it was an aspect of life that. I really needed to help keep me going through a real challenging work schedule.

[49:21] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a foundational part of your life. I think it’s so great that that’s a, like you said, it was simple, but it’s easy to do and it’s easy not to do, but it’s a, it’s a really critical part Part of your life.

[49:32] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And so what were, what were the benefits? Like, what did you see, feel, experience during your challenge? Having done that every day that had you not done it, you, you might not have seen, felt, or experienced.

[49:46] Lisa Kerle: For me, just having, going back to that faith. Knowing that I was grounded each night, you know, filling my mind with something very good, very positive.

[49:59] Lisa Kerle: I needed that. I needed that scripture at night, you know, just to bring myself back, like I said, to the ground and be able to be prepared for the next day. Just knowing that because faith is so important to me, that I wasn’t doing it alone. Aside from our team and, you know, everyone else, I know that I have Christ beside me, helping me through all my challenges.

[50:26] Lisa Kerle: And I really needed that, you know, because there were definitely days where I questioned, is the campaign, are they going to keep me? Can I make it through a full election cycle? It was something I’d never done before. And, you know, in the conversations leading up to it, I wasn’t even prepared for it. Like, I don’t want to say prepared for it, but could truly comprehend what those next five months were going to be when I accepted that position.

[50:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. That’s, there’s a lot of work just having talked to you through that. It was a mountain of work and it felt like you were just always on. And this, this short pause seemed to, to fuel you and keep you going.

[51:14] Lisa Kerle: It did it, you know, each night, just being able to read, um, and I used the devotional Jesus Calling.

[51:22] Lisa Kerle: So, very short scriptures that I was able to read and reflect on and be able to fuel my mind that way before I got started the next morning.

[51:36] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So what advice do you have for the listener? For the listener who might want to do their own challenge or just wants to get more consistent with something, what advice would you give?

[51:44] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You know, what worked, what did not work, what advice do you have for somebody else?

[51:48] Lisa Kerle: If someone’s not done a challenge before, keep it simple. You know, our challenges do not need to be overwhelming to where we’re set up to fail because then we’re not going to want to do the next challenge or try to make adjustments or those small changes that we know that we want to make or should be making, but we set it so high that we can’t achieve it.

[52:11] Lisa Kerle: And then the next time we just like, uh, you know, I’m not going to be able to do that. So

[52:15] Jim Harshaw Jr.: yeah, make it winnable, create momentum.

[52:18] Lisa Kerle: Yeah, and I think last year I had two or three elements to my challenge. This year I knew for me to be part of the challenge, like I stated earlier, I wanted to have it focused on my faith and I kept it to where I knew I could do that.

[52:37] Lisa Kerle: I knew I could do 10 minutes. Had I said I was jumping into a Bible study that was going to be an hour each week and I was, you know, just meeting and then 20 minutes of my own time. Working on that. I would not have been able to do that. Like, I, I knew that I did not have that time to commit, but I could do 10 minutes when I went to bed at night.

[52:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So yeah, last year, yours was much more complex. It was a no junk food Monday through Friday. Uh, 90 ounces of water daily, no coffee till after 11 a. m. And, uh, no coffee after 11 a. m. Sorry. And then also one time per week, 30 minutes on campaign team manager, et cetera. So, so yeah, it was much simpler this year.

[53:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And regardless, you executed both last year and this year. So for listener, I mean, there’s, there’s different ways to do it, right? Figure out what works for you, what uniquely you need and challenge yourself, stretch yourself. But also like, what do you need for this season of your life? Lisa, congrats, good work.

[53:38] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You’re always inspiring to the other Pathfinders. Can I ask you one more question? What has been your experience as a Pathfinder?

[53:46] Lisa Kerle: So it’s actually pretty easy. You mentioned my challenge last year working on, you know, and I kind of laughed in the back of my head when you said, you know, I had that 30 minutes a week.

[53:58] Lisa Kerle: I think it was to work on a campaign that was preparing for my own campaign. And looking back just now, I know that work that I did for those 30 minutes, because I knew what was coming forward after the 1st of the year, it was. Like, I talked to you during those four months of my own campaign, and I had the most peace running my own campaign, even in the end where I did not come out on top.

[54:29] Lisa Kerle: I have no regrets on how I did it. And that was from the work I did. Through working with you and Craig on preparing, and then this election cycle on a presidential campaign, all the work I’ve done with Rebuild Your Path really prepared me for that. Like I said, talking to the 2 gentlemen that brought me on to the team and offered me the position.

[54:53] Lisa Kerle: Could not have prepared me for me to comprehend what was going to happen in the next 5 months, but the work from Reveal Your Path allowed me to do that work. So, I knew what the goals were, and I quickly started implementing micro goals. How do I get the crazy goals? They had given me, like, needing 75 new captains each week in my 10 counties that.

[55:17] Lisa Kerle: You know, I have more wildlife than people, but I was able to do that. I was able to use everything, all the foundations of Go Your Path to excel in the campaign that I was just on. And by the end of the campaign, I was outperformed some of the teams in the East on daily goals. And that was huge for me because, you know, they, they were very populated Philadelphia and I crushed them on several different days.

[55:49] Lisa Kerle: And, you know, that does come back to what I’ve learned in Reveal Your Path and the help that you and Craig have provided me.

[55:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Well, we’re grateful to have you, Lisa, keep up the good work. You’re the lone female in the program now. And you’re just, you’re one of the guys,

[56:08] Lisa Kerle: I mean, I’ve got my hoodie on today because it’s like, I didn’t want to get completely dressed up for, I have a lot of errands to do and I’m like, Oh, Grand River Ranch.

[56:19] Lisa Kerle: What a better, it out beats any suit. So

[56:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: yeah. Yeah. What a great event we had at the retreat and you’ve been to every retreat. So look forward to seeing you at this year’s retreat.

[56:29] Lisa Kerle: I’ll be coming in, um, May to that. Thanks. So I’m looking forward to it.

[56:34] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Likewise. Thanks, Lisa.

[56:36] Lisa Kerle: All right. Thanks, Jim.

[56:38] Jim Harshaw Jr.: All right. So you heard from five amazing pathfinders.

[56:41] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Now it’s time for you to take action. We’re going to have a link in the action plan. That’s going to give you a bunch of ideas. And this is something I share with my clients, a bunch of ideas that you can use and utilize in order to create your own challenge. So time for you to get to work. I look forward to hearing from you.

[56:57] Jim Harshaw Jr.: If you take action on this, let me know, jump over into our free Platform. And let me know how your challenge is going. Um, just go to jimharshajr. com slash free and you’ll get free access into our, our free coaching platform, our free platform, free community. And I want to hear from you how your challenge is going.

[57:15] Jim Harshaw Jr.: All right, let’s do it. Time to take action. Good luck.

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