I recently did a 4 day fast. There are many benefits of fasting that I may share in another post - but the point of this issue is to tell you why I chose to consume 0 calories for 96 hrs. I listened to a podcast where Jessie Itzler spoke about how he challenges his mind and body through a difficult task once per year. He called it a Misogi. By tradition, the Misogi is an ancient Japanese ritual where people pilgrimage to sacred waterfalls, lakes, and rivers, to push their limits and build resilience. The western version of the Misogi has been performed by many athletes and people with growth mindsets.
Do something so hard one time a year that it impacts the other 364 days.
Jessie Itzler
The basic tenants are as follows:
Do not prepare for the challenge. Ie. if you chose to run 20k you wouldn’t train by building yourself up to run that distance. Essentially, you want to get to a point where it is so difficult that you feel like quitting. The mental toughness it takes to get over this point of inflection builds your resilience muscle.
It can’t kill you
You have a roughly 50% chance of completing the task
You don’t perform in front of a crowd (it is meant for self-growth)
You don’t brag about it
One of the most effective ways to build resilience is to put yourself in challenging situations. Many successful people in the world have endured low points in their lives. These points of suffering forced them to reflect and build resiliency to grow faster than they would have if they were living a life of full comfort. The western Misogi is a self-directed approach to building resilience muscle.
My message from this post is to keep pushing yourself to new heights. Keep putting yourself in uncomfortable situations so you can grow and become closer to the best version of yourself.
ACTION ITEMS
Read about Misogi in this article for more information
Think about doing a Misogi (to start maybe you do a quarterly one with a relative 75% success rate to build some momentum)
some examples include
Run 25k or 3x as far as you have ever run
Paddleboard 20kms
Do an ice bath for 4 minutes
Climb a mountain
Do a 7 day fast
Do small things on a regular basis to make you feel slightly less comfortable (take cold showers, try a 1 or 2-day fast, or go 24hrs without using your cell phone).
Find an accountability partner to check in and remind you about the goal you have set
Great read. Mental resilience develops when we come out of our comfort zone and face situations that test our ability to endure. We can all take small steps to hep achieve this. Keep an open mind and stay positive!