75 Hard Experience
75 Hard Experience
...more

1 Listener
All episodes
Best episodes
Top 10 75 Hard Experience Episodes
Best episodes ranked by Goodpods Users most listened
Bring it 2021! Day 7 of 75 Hard
75 Hard Experience
01/03/21 • 8 min
Bring it on! I’m ready to conquer 2021 after the shit show of 2020.
I’m seven days into my 75 Hard Challenge, which might as well be my New Years Resolution.
I tried to start the day after Christmas and failed, but then restarted the next day. Now I’m seven days down and 68 to go!
How well did you start 2021 and when?
After the shit-show that was 2020, I was ready to start early. And I started by trying a 75 Hard before Christmas and failing. Then I reset for the day after Christmas and failed. So I started again. Now I am seven days in.
In the last seven days, it hasn’t been great, but I’ve lost a couple of pounds and been working out. I really want to get back into fighting shape.
I was a U.S. Marine at one time and in great shape. I loved being physically fit and then life got in the way for about a decade. Now I’m fat, old, and out of shape. I can, and am, doing something about two out of three.
Persistence is the key to everything. I’m learning that, again and again, the hard way through these 75 Hard Challenges.
I’ve been learning everything the hard way during my 75 Hard Challenges.
One of the things I’m remembering, and learning again, from being a Marine is “bring it on!” We use to say that to any challenge. Didn’t matter what it was.
Now I find myself saying “bring it” to 2021. I’m ready for 2020 to be a memory and ready for 2021 to be in full swing.
Bring on the challenge. Bring on the new year. Bring on the challenge.
Whatever happens and whatever it is, my attitude this year is going to be with the arrogance of a young Marine and say “bring it!”
What about you? What is your attitude towards the new year? What are you going to do this year? What goals have you set?
What challenge will you say “bring it!”
Ben Branam
The post Bring it 2021! Day 7 of 75 Hard appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
01/03/21 • 8 min

1 Listener
75 Hard and Relationships
75 Hard Experience
10/19/21 • 9 min
Will your relationships with the people close to you suffer during and after doing the 75 Hard Program?
I got a sad email from a heartbroken father. His daughter’s boyfriend was doing 75 Hard and at about day 30 abruptly ended the 7-year relationship for no apparent reason. He wanted to know if that was part of 75 Hard.
That is definitely not part of the program, but could be an outcome and a possible downside of you completing 75 Hard.
If you complete the 75 Hard Program it will have an effect on your relationships with those around you. Everything has a positive or negative effect on your relationships no matter what you do or do not do.
The 75 Hard Program, as outlined by Andy Friesella (2 workouts per day, a perfect diet, drink a gallon of water a day, read 10 pages of a self improvement book a day, and take a progress picture, for 75 days straight), will have a profound effect on the people close to you.
Through this website, I’m hoping you do the program. I’m hoping it changes you for the better (it will if you do it and don’t cheat), and I’m hoping that the people around you will see you get better and want to do the same. If we can get that effect to spider web out in the world, we can make the world a better place. I know, pipe dreams, but those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, just might.
When you complete this program you will grow five to ten years in maturity in less than three months. You will feel like the people around you haven’t changed, but you have. And you are right. Sometimes you have to give the people around you time to ketchup, and sometimes you will leave them behind. That is their choice. Do they want to improve and grow as a person or not?
I’m getting old and crotchety, if you want to improve yourself I’ll bend over backward to help you. I’m as loyal as a puppy. If you don’t want to improve yourself, get better as a person, and better at what you do, I’ve got no time for you.
You will find the same things. You can either spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to change someone or move on. During the 75 days, you will not have time to work on anyone but yourself. Doing two workouts a day, planning all your meals, and making sure you take time to read and drink water, takes up all your free time. The first time I did the program, I don’t think I spent more than four hours for the entire 75 days watching TV. The average American watches their screens for over four hours a day.
After doing the program, you won’t be average anymore. You will be above the crowd and you will want to spend time with other people that want to be on the top.
Since finishing the program the first time, I am working in a totally new job, field, and industry. I was pissed off at my old company because they wanted to be the same, and not improve policies or procedures, or the company, or themselves. So, I was thankful when they pushed me out at the beginning of the Pandemic and I found a new company and boss to work for. People that wanted to be better and get things done.
As usual, there is always one (a Marine Corps saying meaning nothing will be perfect with a group of people, there will always be one person that is messed up). And he does nothing but pisses me off! And I don’t want anything to do with him. I have to work with him, for now, but if I was his direct boss, I would simply replace him. I don’t have time to argue with someone daily that doesn’t want to do their job, let alone doesn’t care to get better.
The change is worth doing the 75 Hard Program, but like anything in life, there is a downside. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Ben Branam
The post 75 Hard and Relationships appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
10/19/21 • 9 min
Do You Continue When You are Sick? 75 Hard Day 42
75 Hard Experience
08/22/21 • 9 min
Do you continue when you are sick? Give up for a day? Or give up period?
Yesterday I was laid up by the Covid Vaccine. I felt so sick I could barely do anything. I didn’t want to eat, didn’t want to move, felt horrible.
Before you go side-ways on me for talking about the Vaccine, it’s only relevant because I got mine the day before. Pain in my arm migrated to pain everywhere. It was the “I’m sick” body aches that come with a common cold. I just didn’t want to do anything. Even going downstairs to drink water was work.
But I did it. I continued my 75 Hard Journey even while being sick.
I know it sounds stupid to say, “look at me I did something while I was sick.” Because we all do what we have to do when we are sick. I know when you are sick you still have family and work obligations that you will continue to do. So I just added 75 Hard on top of those normal things.
Pushing through the hard times no matter what is how you continue and do hard things when you have to.
Last year I got the actual Covid-19 and it sucked a lot! I’d suggest you avoid it if at all possible.
But some of the main problems that will land you in the hospital are dehydration and weakness from lack of food. So when I had the Rona I made myself get up every hour and drink water and walk around. I also forced myself to eat something once a day. I had extreme muscle pain and my blood oxygen levels were on the brink of a hospital stay. But I wasn’t going.
On day two of walking around my room every hour, I had to go to the bathroom first and look myself in the mirror to get the motivation to do it. I had to yell at myself like I was a junior Marine failing at his task. But I did it.
On day three of walking around the pain was so bad I would cry in front of the mirror first and then tell myself I could do it. And then did it.
By day four, it started getting better.
The discipline, motivation, and pure grit I learned from 75 Hard let me stay at home and out of the hospital and recover from the Rona.
This program could change your life and maybe even save it. Sooner or later things will happen in life. You will get sick, a family member will get sick, and you will lose someone... We are all mortal and it happens. But if you have built-in a strength of will you will come out the other side. If you choose to try and learn your strength of will at the worst time in your life you may not make it.
Build your strength before you need it. Do a 75 Hard Program and be a better person. Sign up for my 75 Hard free starters guide here.
Ben Branam
The post Do You Continue When You are Sick? 75 Hard Day 42 appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
08/22/21 • 9 min
Thankfulness: 75 Hard Day Complete
75 Hard Experience
09/26/21 • 9 min
Yesterday I completed another 75 Hard.
I am very grateful to have finished and run the race. Did I accomplish all my goals... that’s a big NO! Do I wish I had accomplished all my goals? Of couse!
I did accomplish my biggest goal. I feel and think I’ve become a better person. I read three books, worked out every day and pushed more weight than the month before, and went faster than the month before.
I wanted to lose some weight and a couple of inches on the gut and chest while I was at it. No such luck.
In the last couple of days of challenge, I was feeling like a failure because I had worked for 75 days straight and felt like I sacrificed a lot to get some weight to drop off. I felt like life was kicking me in the face again and felt depression setting in.
It’s really easy to go down a dark path when you let your self-talk tell you about all your failures and again and again. I wouldn’t let anyone in the world talk to me in that way, but I let myself tell me how worthless I was.
I was able to turn it around with a little thankfulness. At the beginning of last week, we finally had the first day of fall here in South Texas. We know fall is coming when we finally have a cool feeling moring.
If you don’t live here, it’s hard to explain. During the summer it never cools down. It’s always hot. Even right before down and in the middle of the night, it still feels hot. It just doesn’t feel as hot. We all look forward to that first morning when you walk outside and feels cool. We normally wait for three to for months, but sometimes it is as long as six months.
This first morning doesn’t mean the heat is gone for the year, it just means that it will start getting better.
That first morning, feeling like shit, a failure, and idiot, I walked outside to go to work and felt the cool morning. It was glorious.
I walked out into the middle of my street and stood there for about five minutes just enjoying the morning cool breeze. Just thankful for everything. I posted it on Instagram (@BenBranam) and looked at some of my pictures. I have a great life. No, I don’t have everything I want, but I have everything I need. And I get to do some pretty amazing things with some awesome people!
From this 75 Hard I learned one thing. I struggled for 75 days of not missing a workout, not eating one sweat thing, reading every day 10 pages, and drinking a gallon of water.
I did it to learn one painfully obvious less:
BE THANKFUL FOR WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU HAVE!
One of the most simple things ever.
I am probably just dense as it takes me learning the hard way to truly get life lessons. Are you like that?
I’m determined to remember this one and to practice every day.
I have a great job. I have great friends. I have a great family. I am a good person. I have a great life!
Most of the time I forget this. I ignore my good friends and let those that are “friends” be vampires and suck away my time and energy.
I complain and focus on the bad parts of my job. No job is perfect, but I love most of it, like 90% of it, and like 90% of the people I work with. I sometimes focus on what I wish my family would do for me or with me, and that sucks the joy away from everything family.
Sometimes, I let myself go down a dark path and remind myself over and over again about all my failures, misses, and mistakes in life. Forgetting that I reached three out of five goals I set for myself.
And then, worst of all, I look at other peoples’ lives and how great it looks and judge their best days against my worst days and think about how crappy my life is. Not true at all. No matter how good or bad other peoples’ lives are, mine is still good or bad regardless of what they are doing.
I am thankful for you reading this. The world is a dumpster fire of uncertainty right now. We need everyone that can to become better. If you are reading this, I know that you want to be better. And you will.
My advice, be thankful for what you have, what you have achieved, and continue getting better and achieving more.
Ben Branam
The post Thankfulness: 75 Hard Day Complete appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
09/26/21 • 9 min
Love and Admiration Towards Each Other
75 Hard Experience
09/12/21 • 4 min
It’s what I remember after September 11, 2001, a love for others and an admiration for our country and those that were ready to protect us no matter the cost.
It’s been 20 years since the terrorist attacks on 9-11 and the world has changed considerably for the good and the bad.
The attacks were horrible. Thousands dying and more are trying to make it right.
Since then we’ve been at war. America has taken over two countries and killed tenfold what we lost that day or more. We’ve also lost more than the two thousand we lost that day.
After fighting for 20 years we now have warriors going into battle because of 9-11 that were not even alive when it happened.
If you were alive that day, you know what was going on and where you were (check out my story here). Share your story in the comments below.
I want you to remember how you felt the days and weeks after 9-11. How much you cared for other people and wanted to help any way you could. How much you admired and wanted to honor our heros’ trying to do work that they knew was impossible but couldn’t bring it up to those that were supporting them.
I want you to remember how close you felt to all the people around you, how we let petty differences go, and became one people for a couple of years. We all stood for what we thought was right. And we stood together.
We all wanted to be better so we could help all those in need. We wanted the country to be better so it could stop this from happening again. And we wanted to the world to be better so that no one would ever resort to such an act again.
Now, 20 years later, we’ve lost that unity of purpose. We have lost the desire to be better and help each other. We, as Americans, are lost. We have no direction.
I don’t know what direction is best for the country but I do know what direction is better for me and you... up. Become better at everything you do.
As a person, there is only one way to go, and that is up. You have to level up in life. The way to do that is by becoming more than you are right now. In short, become better.
You have to grow as a person. That’s how we make everything better. You become better and help the people around you become better, and soon we have a better world to leave for our children and our children’s children.
Stop buying into all the negative news in the world. These are simple problems to solve. Become better and learn to solve a problem. Help people with their problems and they will help you.
Then the world will be better. It all starts with you taking a look in the mirror and making a change.
Ben Branam
The post Love and Admiration Towards Each Other appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
09/12/21 • 4 min
Your Journey?
75 Hard Experience
09/06/21 • 9 min
Are you on your own journey? Are other people helping your journey? Changing your journey? Or hindering your journey?
We are all on our own journey in life. We are going to the same place. In the end, we will all die, it’s just a matter of when and how. When you die, they will put the date you were born, and the day you died, separated by a dash on your tumb stone. That dash is your life. What you do with that dash, who you impact, and what journey you take to get there is up to you. Live your dash how you want to be remembered. That dash is all you have.
Last week I got a nasty-sounding comment on my podcast about how I’m not really on a 75 Hard journey because I’m not doing two workouts a day. The inventor of the 75 Hard Program, Andy Frisella, says no substitutes and no changes. Well, I did the original two years ago before almost anyone knew it was a thing. Andy announced it on his podcast, I wrote down the 5 rules and started a week later. It was hard, tough, annoying, painful, and life-changing.
Now I’m continuing on to take 75-day journeys one at a time to improve my life. I’m sharing it with you to hopefully help you become a better person. I know as I’m doing these 75 Hard days I’m getting better. As I’m getting better my friends and family around me are working to be better people. I’m hoping the same will happen to you.
If you are reading this, I hope you are getting better and helping the people around you to get better. If we all do the simplest and best thing to help ourselves, we can make the world a better place.
Get on your own journey to be better. Tell everyone that isn’t there to help you to F off. And help everyone you can along the way.
You can do it. It all starts with taking a look in the mirror and making yourself better.
Ben Branam
The post Your Journey? appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
09/06/21 • 9 min
Make Your Life Better by Being Around People
75 Hard Experience
10/04/21 • 9 min
I just got back from Amm-Con (Alternative Mass Media Convention). It is a conference for 2nd Amendment content and other content creators that are shunned by most big web brands and social media sights. I got to see a bunch of my friends that I haven’t seen in years. We live all over the country and get to talk to each other via Zoom like the rest of the world right now, but it isn’t the same.
I’ve been feeling in the dumps for the last couple of weeks. Job is stressing me out, the family wants more than I have to give, and I’m just not where I want to be in life. Any of that sound familiar?
For the last two weekends, I’ve been doing work for my other side hustle allowing me to be around groups of good people. And it’s made me feel much better.
Safety is always the thing nowadays because of the un-named virus (I don’t want to get blocked or get one of those “find the truth tags”).
I never knew how much I enjoyed being around other people until I wasn’t. Isn’t that how most things are?
We all have great things in life. Let’s face it, if you are reading this blog you are probably in the top 10% of financial earners in the world, and have the time, the equipment, and the desire to self actualize instead of running away from a tiger or just trying to grow food to feed yourself. A lot of great things in our lives are like air... we never notice it’s there until it’s gone.
Before the world shut down, I could go to conferences and be around other people I liked or not, and it didn’t seem to bother me if I went or not. Now, I realize how much I miss it and want to hang out longer with friends, have a drink, and break bread.
After doing that for two weekends in a row I’m feeling better and more ready to take on the world.
Find people you can be around to help recharge your battery: People that will keep you going. People that know and like you. Sometimes you should go where everyone knows your name (Cheers).
Get out and get around other people. I know you don’t feel like it (for a plethora of reasons), but like most things that are good for you, you don’t always feel like doing it. I don’t always “feel” like going to the gym, but am always better for it afterward.
Ben Branam
The post Make Your Life Better by Being Around People appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
10/04/21 • 9 min
Continuing Without Results
75 Hard Experience
08/15/21 • 9 min
Just keep pushing forward until the results come.
Zig Ziglar tells a story of two guys out in the hot fields back in the day. They come across an old hand pump that use to work.
They pump for a while but nothing comes out. So they find a little water from a nasty creek to prime the pump. Then pump some more.
One guy says that’s enough, I’m done. But the other continues on. Because the deeper the well, the longer it takes to get to the top, and the better the water will be.
“Don’t give up, that water is coming says” the optimistic guy to the quitter. And they pump and they pump and they pump some more.
“I give up,” says the quitter and starts to walk away from his pumping duties.
“Don’t stop, that water is right below the surface. If you stop it will fall all the way back to the bottom and you will have to start again.” says the optimist. He convinces the quitter to stay and pump more.
They pump more and more. And finally, water comes out.
Once the water comes out, all they had to do was put a little pressure on the pump every once in a while to keep the water flowing.
The pump is like life. We have to pump and pump never knowing when the water will come out. It takes an amazing amount of work to get whatever you are doing to start flowing, but once you do, it only takes a little work to keep it going.
Do you ever want to be the quitter?
Last week I was that guy. I almost quit this 75 Hard Program go around at 30 days because I haven’t seen any progress. It’s painful to be on a diet and workout every day and not see anything happening. But I will continue for my 75 days and then reevaluate what I’m doing.
What about you? How many days or times will you work on something before reevaluating and moving on to something else?
You don’t have to be great to begin, but you do have to begin, to be great.
Get started, set a time of how long you will work on this one idea before you try something else. And when you set that time schedule, I’d like you to think about Dave Ramsey’s three rules of business:
- It will take twice as long as you think,
- Cost twice as much as you think,
- And everyone thinks they are the exception to the rule.
Go after your goal. Work on it every day. Set yourself a reasonable time limit and then double it. Work for that long, and then try something new.
Ben Branam
The post Continuing Without Results appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
08/15/21 • 9 min
Energizer Bunny is How to Reach Your Goals: 75 Hard Day 27
75 Hard Experience
08/07/21 • 9 min
Just keep going like the energizer bunny is how to reach your goals.
Every day is a new battle. Every day is a new challenge. Every day is the same but different.
Yesterday I had to get up at 3 am and be at work by 4 to see an out-of-town customer by 7 am. No problem.
Most people would take that day off from anything else. Most people would just do the minimum of everything that day. Most people don’t reach their goals.
Here’s the secret of how to reach your goals. Work on them every day. No matter what. It doesn’t matter what else happens, if you keep working every day you will reach your goals.
Most people get off track when they stop for a day. A day becomes a week, a week becomes a month, and months become years.
I’ve always had physical fitness and doing physical things as goals in my life. At least for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t until my senior of high school I discovered weight lifting and my goals actually seemed reachable.
I was a fat kid, growing into a fat adult. I wanted to be a police officer but everyone laughed because of my physical fitness. After high school, I continued weights and working out. I got into good enough shape to join the Marine Corps and get through boot camp and School of Infantry. After that fitness was fun. I went through a police academy and the fitness part was easy.
Fast forward years and after I came back from combat in 2003, nothing mattered except enjoying life. I did the minimum physical requirements for years. Then, got in good enough shape to run a half marathon in 2007. By 2008 I was back in the war as a contractor in Iraq. By 2009, physical fitness was back in my life strong and fast. I was doing workouts that most soldiers that lived on the base wouldn’t even think of doing, and loving it.
I came back from Iraq the second time and started a family, and helped start a church. For years I was working a “real” job and working full time at the church and trying to raise a new kid and stay married. Fitness fell off.
I went to the gym once or twice a week if I was lucky. But for lots of weeks, I did zero physical fitness. Fast forward another 10 years and I look like a fat, out-of-shape, old dad.
Now I’m trying to change that. I don’t miss... even one day. I came home yesterday and did yard sprints. Then finished with a walk and mowing the yard for an hour. It was grueling, hot, and I was tired. But I did it. I worked out even after getting four hours of sleep and working 11 hours.
That is how you reach your goals. You work on it every day no matter what else happens.
Here I am at day 27 and still in the game for my 75 Hard Program. And I’m loving it. I got up this morning and headed out for a bike ride. Loved it. Faster and further than I have gone in over a year. I’m getting back into life. I had two good gym workouts last week, one yard workout, and two walks. I’m doing it every day.
What about you? Are you reaching your goals? Why don’t you set a process goal to reach your goal?
What is the one thing you could do every day that will help you reach one of your major goals? If it’s like me, work out every day, without fail. Some workouts are better than others, but I always get one.
If you want to write a book, set a goal to sit in front of your writing station for 15 minutes a day no matter what. Even if you fall asleep at your desk because it’s so late, do it.
Making that kind of commitment to yourself is how you reach your goals.
If you aren’t sure what goal to work on first, or you have the goal of being a better person, do the 75 Hard Program. It will make you a better person and help you reach all your goals. Get the beginner’s guide below.
Ben Branam
The post Energizer Bunny is How to Reach Your Goals: 75 Hard Day 27 appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
08/07/21 • 9 min
What to do When You Fail: Not if, but when
75 Hard Experience
10/26/21 • 9 min
What to do when you fail, because you will fail at something sooner or later... but then what?
I finished a 75 Hard Challenge a couple weeks ago and still feel like a failure. What do you do when you fail? I don’t know what to do but start again.
You haven’t really failed until you give up on your goals.
In the Marine Corps I was trained to continue to fight no matter what. You continue forward. If you can think, if you can move, if you can do anything, you move forward. Your mind will want you to quit long before your body gives out.
I proved that to my young self-time and time again. And throughout my 10-year career, I only saw a couple of Marines truly fail. It wasn’t because they gave up, it was because their body failed them. I endured too long more than once and came away with injuries that still bother me today. You can do more than you ever thought possible.
The trick is, when you feel like you failed, you have to get up and do it again. You have to keep trying until you make it.
Once you get past failure, the next step is professionalism.
I was honored in 2006 to be sent to a Spec Ops school as a “conventional unit” we were the first to go to this particular military school. I loved every second of the two-week course training to be a spec ops warrior.
One of the things I learned was how to operate like a professional and train to be one. An old Delta guy told me the simple truth, “Amateurs train until they get it right. Professionals train until they can’t get it wrong.” That shaped the rest of the training I did in the Marine Corps and still shapes how I train professional warriors (cops and military members, and civilians) today.
During my 75 Hard Challenge, one of my goals was to lose weight. I thought by not eating any sweats and working out every day that would just happen. Other people did it, and it has worked in the past, so why wouldn’t it work for me?
That is the amateur in me talking. It is telling me that this worked before so it might work again. The pro in me knows I need to do more.
What do you do when you fail? Do you look back and just be the amateur that is half-assing your life just getting through, or are you going to be the professional that goes all-in and trains until you can’t get it wrong?
I got it wrong because I was thinking like an amateur. I need to get back in there and train like a professional. That is my next goal.
What about you? What have you failed at that you are going to get back in there and work to be a professional at?
Ben Branam
The post What to do When You Fail: Not if, but when appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.
10/26/21 • 9 min
Show more

Show more
FAQ
How many episodes does 75 Hard Experience have?
75 Hard Experience currently has 119 episodes available.
What topics does 75 Hard Experience cover?
The podcast is about Podcasts, Self-Improvement and Education.
What is the most popular episode on 75 Hard Experience?
The episode title 'Bring it 2021! Day 7 of 75 Hard' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on 75 Hard Experience?
The average episode length on 75 Hard Experience is 9 minutes.
How often are episodes of 75 Hard Experience released?
Episodes of 75 Hard Experience are typically released every 6 days, 21 hours.
When was the first episode of 75 Hard Experience?
The first episode of 75 Hard Experience was released on Nov 25, 2019.
Show more FAQ

Show more FAQ
Comments
0.0
out of 5
No ratings yet