How to do the impossible - Velocity 5/12

George Hood holds the world record for the longest plank - at 8 hours, 15 minutes, and 15 seconds. If he can plank for 8 hours, it shouldn't be hard for us to hold the position for 3 minutes, right?

That's exactly how Harrison kicked off today's velocity session - by having us plank for 3 minutes.

It is only after we had went through the experience of pushing ourselves through a tough situation that we can sit back and thoroughly answer, "Of the people who can plank for hours, how much of their ability is due to athleticism as opposed to mindset?"

It's all mindset, Harrison says. If you took some other people of the same athletic ability as George Hood and told them to plank, they could maybe hold it for 10, 20, or 30 minutes. But probably not an hour. Just like athleticism needs to be trained, so does mindset. Hour-long plankers had to train their mindset to get there.

When Harrison was a kid, his karate teacher would step over the kids' abdomens, saying, "mind over matter, so it doesn't matter what I do you should be able to hold strong." Although this is quite different from our norms of how adults should treat kids today, the principle still applies.

As a medium-distance runner, Harrison often gets asked, How do you get there? To him, the key is in training your mind, so that you can keep going when in pain because your mind is more powerful. After you go over 5K, the 10Ks and 15Ks all have the same experience - it's just the repetitive rhythm of feet hitting the ground.

When he runs, the mindset is that you just gotta put your feet on the ground. That's not very hard to do.

As a CEO, part of the reason that the beginning of his business was successful is that he wasn't afraid to sell his product to anyone.

I would talk to people who I didn't deserve to talk to and ask them to give me money.

That was all mind over matter, he says. I just need to pick up the phone and dial the number. The minute the talk button is pressed then your job is done, because the conversation will flow from there.

I could go on about how many places this is used in life.

Cold outreach: Just send it.



Looking for an internship? Just ask. If they later say that "that was a very awkward way to ask for an internship," you can learn and ask better next time. Harrison still thinks that asking screwing up your ask leaves you better off than having not asked.

If you can't find a way in your mind to get your plank to 3 mins, that won't fly as a CEO. If you're a CEO and can't pick up the phone to call someone, that's game over for you. No daddy will step in and do the hard thing for you. You have to find a way to push yourself mentally to do things that are in your own best interest.

Harrison has firsthand felt the benefits of applying this mindset to his own life. I was very excited to write this week's guide [on the CEO mindset], he tells us. In his company, he has basically jumped at doing things that are good for him regardless of pain, to a crazy level.

His brother, cofounder, is the opposite - wouldn't ask for things that he doesn't think he deserves, and doesn't believe he deserves most things. And when doing something you have never done before, you will never feel like you deserve it, you'll feel like an impostor. but that's normal. if you feel like an impostor, it means you're doing something you've never done before and that's a sign of growth. We all are impostors. If you're not an impostor then you're staying too much in your comfort zone.

I don't want to plank for 3 mins. but if I can find a way to make myself do it, then I'll be able to achieve a lot more.

You may not relate to being a CEO and living in a situation where if you don't take responsibility, you're done for. But that's forgetting that we're all the CEOs of our own lives.

In some things, each of us is being a bad CEO of our own life.

There are things in my life I'm not doing because they are uncomfortable.

One day, you'l hit something where you don't think is possible. But Harrison believes that we're strong in our minds enough to accomplish anything through mindset alone. TKS innovates have been training mindsets for close to a year now. Once you're able to put mind over matter to get your job done, to find a way in your head to get yourself to plank for 3 minutes or to dial that number, you'll be able to do things that other people think are impossible.

There is only one other Velocity session in the whole year that Harrison hopes sinks in as well as this one. Once internalized that that you're in control of the full inputs and outputs of your success, mind over matter is truly powerful.