5 Comfort-Crushing Tips to Reach Your Goals When you think you've done all you can do, you're just getting started.
By Brian Ainsley Horn Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Most people imagine the life of a multi-millionaire serial entrepreneur to be comfortable and easy going. Those people aren't imagining Jesse Itzler's life.
Itzler, an owner of the Atlanta Hawks, co-founder of Marquis Jets and pioneering partner behind Zico Coconut Water, will try almost anything as long as it's bold, risky and hard. When Itzler felt his life drifting, he invited a Navy SEAL into his house for a month.
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This year, Itzler has taken his desire and passion a step further by issuing the #2017ofEverything Challenge to his social media followers. As people from around the globe have joined the challenge (which focuses on fitness and philanthropy), it's taken on a life of its own. As a reward for participating, Itzler donates money to a new and worthy charity every month for each person who completes a series of fitness challenges.
In January alone, he helped raise thousands for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.
Itzler, who calls the movement "fitlanthropy," believes the success of this challenge proves that people want to push themselves and successfully reach new goals -- that the only thing holding most people back is their own self-imposed limits. Whether those limits come from a mental block, doubt, fear or physical abilities, they can prevent people from finding success.
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For those who want to push past these limits in all areas of life, Itzler has five distinct suggestions to share.
1. Immerse yourself with the best.
Finding someone to push you past your limits is critical to success. The person you choose to help you is going to be someone who has found success in the area you are seeking to improve. The closer you can get to the people doing what you want to do, the quicker you'll get results.
2. Take on more than you think is possible.
There's no glory and no growth in an easy challenge. To push past your limits, you must try progressively harder tasks, especially ones that scare you just a little bit. If you aren't challenging yourself and making each challenge harder and harder, then you won't excel past what you can already do.
3. Create habits that create consistency.
The only thing that separates world-class athletes and champions from those who make the league minimum is consistency of results. So, take consistent action to get consistent results. Do something every day that challenges you. Push yourself even when you don't want to, because these little habits create automatic action and soon you realize you're no longer relying on will power.
4. When you think you're done, you're just getting started.
Itzler learned from the SEAL that when your mind says you're "done," you've actually only used up 40 percent of your potential. This requires you to get uncomfortable and figure out your baseline, then push past it. You're more capable than you realize. If you haven't found success yet, there's a chance it's because you haven't fought off the mental blocks you've established over the years.
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5. Surround yourself with people who support you.
Few people achieve any level of success alone. Having the right people around you to cheer you on, build you up and keep you motivated can often be the only thing holding you back from success or failure.
Itzler credits his wife for supporting his wild adventures, challenges and stunts in his never-ending quest to build what he calls his life resume. He says that if you haven't done something yet, but want to, then you should start now.
Itzler should know. His most recent adventure in immersing himself outside of his comfort zone is by living with monks at a monastery in near-complete silence and solitude.
