Going outside of your comfort zone can bring many benefits to your life and business. This is what multimillionaire Jesse Itzler discovered after spending a month with a Navy SEAL.
As businesses evolve, the rules of the game change constantly. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy for staying at the top of your game. You have to be innovative in finding ways to improve your business. What this means is that you have to seek knowledge in some unconventional places.
For example, it’s pretty common to compare business culture with the culture in sports teams. There are many lessons you can learn from them, such as discipline, teamwork, and focusing on your strengths. You can learn how to push yourself beyond your limits and learn some effective team building strategies.
But here’s a crazy idea. Try to live for a month with one of the toughest men on the planet, a Navy SEAL. Imagine the kind of impact that would have on your mindset.
That’s exactly what multi millionaire entrepreneur and author Jesse Itzler did. This experience was so profound that he turned it into a New York Times best-seller. From cofounding the largest private jet company to selling his other company to Coca-Cola, there is no doubt that Jesse knows what he’s doing. For this kind of success, you need to have a certain mindset. Living with a SEAL helped Jessie to reach it.
The Challenge
In his own words, Jesse wanted to “shake thing up in a big way” after he noticed that he’d started to live on autopilot. An opportunity for this presented itself during a 24-hour relay race that he participated in. While he was a part of a six-person team, there was a man who was planning to complete the entire race on his own.
Jesse found himself stunned by the fact that the man wanted to finish the race with virtually no supplies. After the race ended, he was so intrigued that he decided to contact the man. He googled him and found out that his name was David Goggins, and that he was a Navy SEAL. After cold-calling him first, Jesse flew out to California to meet the man in person.
During the meeting, Jesse had a feeling that the SEAL had something he wanted. Not knowing exactly what it was, he invited him to live with him and his wife, and David agreed. The plan was for him to train Jesse for 31 days. The only condition that the SEAL had was that Jesse must do absolutely everything he said.
The SEAL moved into Jesse’s home in December 2010. When he first appeared, Jesse noticed that he didn’t have any luggage with him. Despite the freezing weather, he didn’t even have on a coat. The first words he said to Jesse were “You ready?” and the training had begun.
Over the next 31 days, Jesse underwent extreme physical training. From running endless miles to hundreds of pull-ups, he pushed his limits far beyond what he thought was possible. But it wasn’t only his physical body that experienced all the changes. His mindset completely changed as well. Although he always had an out-of-the-box approach towards business, he now had a different perception of business as well as life.
He realized that he could integrate the SEAL’s advice into his business, which played a major role in his success. So let’s go over some of the most useful lessons that helped Jesse reach his accomplishments.
Lesson #1 – Make a Plan
The life of an entrepreneur requires a lot of planning. Even the best strategies won’t get you far if you don’t know where you’re going. Creating a sustainable plan is the foundation of any business, so make sure you devote enough time and energy into it.
This requires effective time management skills and the ability to see the bigger picture. Visualize your business and where you want it to be, then go through all the steps you need to take to get there. This might not be an easy task, but it’s crucial to your success.
A very important thing to keep in mind is that your plans may change. The market is very unpredictable, so you never know when some parts of your plan are going to need some changes. What’s important here is to stay flexible without changing your course. So make a plan, but be ready to adapt to eventual changes.
Lesson #2 – ‘When you think you’re done, you’re only 40% done’
From the first time the SEAL came to Jesse’s house, he had been making him push his limits. Although his training had been physical, Jesse began to understand the importance of having the right mindset. He realized that his mind dictates what he’s capable of, and that he needs to keep pushing his limits in order to achieve results.
So what does this mean to you? If your goal is to double your sales, don’t stop when you reach this goal. Instead, keep going and learn how to increase revenue even more. It’s important that you train your business team to do the same. Use Jesse’s method to make sure you and your teammates push yourselves beyond your limits.
This advice is especially important in those hard moments when you feel like quitting. Understand that it’s just your brain talking, and that you can control those thoughts and keep pushing forward. Once you’ve adopted this mindset, you’ll be one step closer to becoming unstoppable.
Lesson #3 – Get the Little Things Done
More often than not, we get so caught up in the most serious things we need to deal with that we delay the little things. This can include some seemingly unimportant phone calls or simple chores. While this might not bother you at first, these things have a way of building up. Once they do, you realize that you should’ve done them on time, because now you have to deal with all of them. This doesn’t leave enough time for the important things and leads to poor time management habits.
This is why you should never delay the small things. No matter how much you don’t feel like it, just get up and do it. This will lead to a more balanced schedule and help you develop effective time management strategies.
Soon after you start doing this, you’ll realize how much of a difference it can make on your overall productivity. Over time, it will become a routine and you’ll get better at managing your time and energy.
Lesson #4 – Make it Simple
Ever thought about why Steve Jobs used to wear pretty much the same clothes every day? Well, the reason for that is simplicity. In today’s world, we have an incredible variety of things available to us. This leads to a tendency to overcomplicate things and become paralysed by choices.
Jesse states that he adopted a minimalistic approach towards some things since he started living with David. This doesn’t have to include cutting down on a lot of the things you enjoy. Instead, try to think about what choices you can eliminate from your everyday life. They may be small things, but the more you free your mind from all that clutter, the more likely you are to make better choices.
Instead of thinking about which suit to wear, or which route to take, you’ll have more energy to focus on things like ideas to improve company culture. You’ll grow your business a lot faster if you simplify the things that deplete your valuable energy. No matter who you are, there are some things that you can simplify, so try to free your mind of them.
Lesson #5 – Change Your Routines
Routines can be a good thing. For example, a healthy morning or exercise routine is very beneficial. But when you have too many routines, you might start feeling like you’re getting stuck. This is what made Jesse invite David in the first place. In these situations, you need to make some changes.
You can start with some minor ones, like finding new music to listen to or trying new coffee. Although this might seem insignificant, it will help you get out of your comfort zone in the long run. This can bring many positive changes to your life.
You can also incorporate this into your business. Try to find new things to do for team bonding, or surprise your teammates with something they’ll enjoy. As you keep doing this, new ideas will start coming to your mind. You may find new strategies to improve sales productivity, or learn more about how to build a successful team.
The best thing about this is that it’s easy to do. Just start small and you’ll notice how easy it becomes to change things when you need to.
Lesson #6 – Drive is Contagious
This is a very important thing to keep in mind if you want to know how to build a successful team. Jesse says that just being around David made him want to push himself beyond his limits. This is why it’s important to surround yourself with motivated people.
This applies to both your personal and work life. Having a social circle made up of strong-willed people will make your mind stronger. You can then set an example for your team, which will feel motivated around you. This is how to build an effective team. Choose your teammates carefully and make sure that they’re going to keep having a positive influence on one another.
Lesson #7 – Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable
This is the cornerstone to living your life outside your comfort zone. You need to make sure to do as many things that make you uncomfortable as you can. As a person, you will grow and gain a lot more confidence. As a businessperson, you’ll learn some valuable selling skills tips.
Make sure to share this with your team as well. Put them in uncomfortable situations so that they learn how to be quick on their feet. This is one of the best ways to improve sales productivity.
No matter if you want to change your personal or work life, the best way to do it is to create a mindset of being comfortable in any situation. Rest assured that this will make your life a lot fuller.
The Final Word
Now you can understand why living with a SEAL changed Jesse’s life so much. The most important thing to remember is that you need to push yourself as much as you can, even if you feel like you can’t.
It doesn’t matter if your goal is to double your sales or have a million Instagram followers, you can take these lessons and adapt them to your life. They can help you with everything from creating your next product to coming up with new ideas to improve company culture.
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