Transform Your Life with the Misogi Challenge

0:07Welcome to today's episode of the mindset mentor podcast the number one mindset podcast in the entire world. I'm your host Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're out there and you live in the United States or Canada and you love this podcast and want to receive some inspirational text messages directly to your cell phone, text me right now, 512-580-9305. Once again, 512-580-9305 and I'll just sporadically send you some love throughout the week. Today, we're going to be talking about a Japanese technique to help you completely change who you are and the foundation of who you are as a person and shake up all of the BS that you have accumulated over the years that are not actually you.

0:54We're going to talk about how to grow yourself with this ancient Japanese technique and we're going to talk about how if you just do this practice, whether it's once a month, once a week, once a day, whatever it might be, but if you just develop a cadence of using this Japanese technique, it will absolutely change your life in many ways. It is called the Misogi Challenge. And Misogi is basically two words put into one. So miso, which is water, and I hope I'm saying these correctly. Hope I'm not saying it incorrectly. So miso is water, and sogi means purification. Now, in the original Misogi Challenge, it's usually a process that involves really, really cold water for purification.

1:37But in this episode, we're not just going to be talking about cold water, although absolutely 100 % cold water is one of the best ways to grow yourself, to change yourself, which we'll talk about that, but it's not just that. But really what we're going to talk about is how to grow yourself, how to grow your willpower by doing something that is extremely hard. There is study after study after study that humans are getting more fat, more lazy every single year. And the idea is, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably don't want to be that type of person. But we become so comfortable, so fat and happy that we would rather stay in a comfort zone versus do something that is hard.

2:18And the idea behind the Masogi Challenge and why I think it's so important for everyone to know about is to do the things that seem so hard, that are so far out of your comfort zone, and you do something that is just like a complete foundational rock up that everything thing that you've been seeing is quote unquote hard for the past week or two weeks or three months or whatever it is, doesn't seem like such a big deal. Like to do something that is so ridiculously hard that it's just like, if I did that thing, I can definitely do this. And to basically expand who you are, to expand your mindset.

2:53And it's like working out, you know, like it's, it's, you can go into a gym for the first time ever in your week and you're not able to lift as much. But when you constantly keep and have a cadence of continuing to keep putting pressure on those muscles that keep growing, keep breaking them down and allowing them to grow and breaking them down, allowing them to grow, your muscles will naturally grow. And that's exactly what we want to do with this as well, is to go so far out of your comfort zone, not a little bit out of your comfort zone, but so far out of your comfort zone that it actually expands and grows who you are to your core.

3:27And so when you start to look at it, it's like, like to do something so hard. Like there's so many women that are listening that have, that have given birth and they don't think, well, I gave birth. I could do anything, right? Like if you've given birth before, you should have full permission to be like, I can do whatever the fuck I want because I was able to give birth, right? Like that's something that's so hard. It's so out of your comfort zone. You need to remind yourself of how bad-ass you are, of how you were able to do that thing that was so hard. Anytime you look at things like, oh, well, I need to grow my business.

3:58I should be able to grow my business. I freaking gave birth to children. Growing my business is easy. You know, some of you guys have been through some terrible traumas in your life. Oh, I went through this terrible trauma growing a business. Oh, that's so easy. Like there's so many things where if we could just relate back and remind ourselves of some of the biggest things that we've gone through and then we've related to what we're struggling with right now, it's like, yeah why wouldn't I be able to do this thing it's so much easier like when I first started dating my wife I remember she was like nothing offends you why like why don't you ever get pissed off nothing offends you I was like because if you look at the things that I went through as a child like the shit that's coming up right now is nothing compared to it it's not really a big deal and so really it's more of like sometimes the universe will place things in front of you and say it is it is it is absolutely something that you need to do you need to have this terrible thing or this hard thing or this trauma that you need to go through so that you can grow.

4:52Sometimes the universe will bring it to us. But in the moments where things are easy, the question becomes, how do we bring it to ourselves? How do we push ourselves so far out of our comfort zone that we can grow our willpower and the less that we care and the less that we focus on the little shit?

5:17the people who I think complain the most what I've found with coaching people for years and years the people who complain the most and obviously it's a very general statement so take it for what it's worth are people who are not wanting to do things when I look out into the world the people who complain the most are the people who don't want to do things They just want things done for them. Or the things that, yeah, well, this, everybody, there was a meme that I saw one years ago. And it was like a guy that was, you know, as a cartoon, it was a guy that was speaking on stage and he said, who wants change?

5:48And everybody's hand goes up in the crowd. And then the next one, he says, who wants to change? And everybody's hand is down. Everybody wants change, but nobody wants to actually to change themselves. And so if you listen to this podcast, you know that you're the thing that needs to change. and when you look at the toughest people in the world they're the ones who have been through the most shit aren't they when you look at someone you're like man that person is unstoppable they've usually been through the most shit like I was watching uh I was watching a video on uh how about I'm butcher his name Francis Ngannou which is the guy who became the the heavyweight champion for uh for the UFC and ended up you know going into boxing and now he's crushing into boxing and everything and that's a whole other thing we could talk about on a different one, but he was born in Cameroon and left Cameroon because he wanted a better life and wanted to become a boxer.

6:39And then he literally hopped on a boat to try to get to Europe. And six times he was arrested from hopping on that boat, trying to get into Europe. They brought him back to Africa and they dropped them off in the middle of the Sahara Desert. And six times he walked through the Sahara Desert, got back to the water. And by the seventh time he finally got into Europe. when he got into Europe they arrested him he was arrested for a few months then he was able to get into France and then he was able he was homeless for a while and he has this like crazy story that should basically be a movie and then within four years or five years becomes the heavyweight champion of the UFC and it's like when he when and when you listen to him talk about him becoming a heavyweight champion it's like it's almost like it's nothing to him because of the fact of all of the stuff that he went through.

7:29When he was 10 years old, he was working in shoveling sand inside of sand mines. And it's just like the craziest stuff. And it's like, yeah, that guy is so tough. I feel for anybody who comes up against him. And that's really what it's like. Sure, the universe gave him those tough things to make him tough. But can we look at ourself and say, you know what? I'm done messing around. I'm done fucking around with all this. I'm going to challenge myself to be better because no one's going to do it but me. So with the original Masogi, you know, there's a couple of different things. It could be a water purification was one of the things that could be what was an original Masogi.

8:04Another original Masogi was fasting for a few days, you know, fasting for three, five or seven days and having nothing. And sometimes it was just water only. And sometimes it was nothing. For some, it was doing prayer and meditation all day, every day for a week. For some, it was submerging and cold. But really what it comes down to is finding something that is a mental, physical, and spiritual practice, and also at the same time, a purification of there's a conditioned self that we've built up over our years of being alive. And that conditioned self might talk down to you and it might say, you're not good enough.

8:39You're not going to be able to go through this thing. And the idea is to find something that's so mentally, physically, and spiritually challenging that basically you have to come up to that conditioned voice that's inside of your head, that little bitch voice that's inside of your head. And you have to either listen to it or you have to say, we no longer have a relationship. I'm going to be the one in charge. And so, you know, when we look at this, how can we take this? How can you take this? And how can you actually start to use it in your life personally? Well, it could be cold water and I recommend it often.

9:09Like I was talking with my head of marketing yesterday and we were talking about cold plunges. And I was like, I hate cold plunges. I have a cold plunge in my house, but I hate them. Even thinking about them makes me start to get nervous because I hate them so much, but it has so many benefits besides the physical benefits, which when I was talking about this, you can go back and listen to the podcast six, seven, eight years ago. I was talking about cold plunging. That's when I first started it. And there was like no research at that time. It was kind of like this weird pseudoscience stuff was coming out.

9:42Now it's like research after research after research is showing how it's so good for your body in so many ways with inflammation. But even taking besides it being really good for your body, it's one of the best things you can do for your mind. Because talk about that little inner bitch coming up. As soon as you're about to hop in that cold water, that voice is going to come in and say, no, you don't need to do it. Hey, just skip today. Or, you know, hop in for 10 seconds and then hop out and you've done it. And so that voice that comes up, that tries to hold you back, is going to come up in that moment.

10:15That voice is the voice that is holding you back from everything that you want in your life. That's the thing that's holding you back more than anything else in this world. And so the idea is, how can I trigger that voice to come up and then actually start to work past it? It tests your willpower. Willpower is something that can be grown. And so you get more willpower. You might have no willpower right now or very little willpower. And you might decide, you know what, I need to develop this willpower. This Misogi challenge is meant to test your willpower. And willpower is like a muscle. It's something that can be grown.

10:47But how else can we bring this into doing something that is so hard? You know, when you look at the cold water, cold water can definitely do it. But how can you find something in your life that is a mental, physical, and spiritual practice that absolutely changes you? How can you develop a cadence in your life of Masogi? How can you use water or working out or going for a run or whatever it is that might be for you to identify that thing that you really need to do that's going to expand you past who you currently are? You can use the water, you can use other things, but the idea is to do something so hard that it changes you in one day.

11:28What is it for you? So think about that for a second. As I'm speaking, I want you to answer the question. What is the thing that as I'm speaking is popping up into your head and it scares the shit out of you? Were you like, oh my God, well, yeah, no, I don't want to do that thing. You know, we think change is a gradual process, but it can happen in an instant, right? So what is something that could change you that you're so afraid of doing that literally as I'm speaking scares the shit out of you? You know, there's been many things that have happened, good and bad in your life that have changed you in one go.

11:58What if you could just go in one go change yourself? What would you need to do in order to feel like a changed person right after? Like, I'll give you a couple of examples. And, you know, you could use any of them. You could not use any of them. It doesn't matter to me. I don't recommend any of them because I don't know you. I don't know your skill set. I don't know your mindset. I don't know your body. But I'll give you some examples of things that I know that people have done to change themselves, right? But take these, start thinking of your own, start asking yourself, what really scares me?

12:27It could be something like going for an extremely intense hike. not a nice little hike where you bring your water bottle and you take your iphone you take selfies the whole time but something that challenges you something that is beyond your capacity obviously be safe don't go you know climbing a mountain when you've never climbed before but something that changes you maybe something that instead of going for a cute little 30 minute hike maybe you find the longest hike you could possibly eight hours maybe you bring a friend with you and you're like, hey, let's challenge ourself to do this and to not stop.

12:58Like something that's fully beyond your capacity, right? Maybe it's doing a sweat lodge. You know, there's many sweat lodges you can go to. One thing that's really popping off a lot, and I'm seeing it over and over and over again, there was literally just like a four or five part series that kept popping up on my Instagram. It was like CNBC, I think it was, or MSNBC or something. Did like a four or five part series on psychedelics and how people are using it to change themselves and people with PTSD are changing themselves and people are even doing breath work, which is, you know, you don't have to ingest anything.

13:32It's just breathing. Maybe it's going for a run that's way beyond your capacity. And I mean, way beyond like there was a client that I had years ago and she was like, Rob, I'm just so stuck. And I was like, do you ever go for a run? And she's like, sometimes we usually it's about a mile. I said, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go for a run until you can't run anymore. And then I want you to find that point where you can't run anymore. I don't want you to track miles. I just want you to go. And then what I want you to do is keep going because it's like, you know, David Goggins always says the law of 40%.

14:04When you have found what your body and your brain think is 100 % of your capacity, like I can't do any more. When you get to that point, you're usually only about 40 % of your capacity. And your growth happens outside of that moment when you find your limit and then you push past it. And I'm not obviously, take what I'm saying, be very careful. Obviously, that's one thing I do want you to do. But how can you push yourself more? A lot of times we are capable of so much more, but we settle for safe. And you know, something like this, like the Masogi challenge can really open you up to changing yourself and believing in yourself more.

14:40And the idea is to do something that you at this moment, who you currently are, don't know if you can do. It has to challenge you. If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you. So you have to meet like your end, your end of your comfort zone, mentally, physically, emotionally, and you have to push through it so that you can find what you're truly capable of. And you have to get past what you think is possible. So the question I have for you is what is that thing and how can you develop a cadence in your life to actually get yourself to this point of, I don't know if I can go any further and then pushing further.

15:16So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on Instagram and tag me in it. Also, if you're out there and you do want to challenge yourself, you do want to grow yourself, you do want to change yourself and make 2024 the absolute best year of your life. I am running a 30-day challenge that starts in January that is built on doing six pillars every single day that are outside of your comfort zone that push you to get better. If you want to learn more about it, you can go to levelup30.com. So levelup30.com. The first 100 people get$50 off the challenge and they get entered into a drawing for a free one-on-one call with me.

15:53I'm giving out one one-on-one call. So once again, it's levelup30.com. If you're just tired of where you have been, if you're ready to grow yourself, you're ready to expand yourself, you're ready to be a different person, you're ready to reignite that fire that's deep down inside of you and you're not fucking around anymore, go to levelup30.com, see what's on there, watch the video, read the page, see if it's right for you, and maybe I'll see you inside the challenge. And with that, I'm gonna leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better.

16:22I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day