Content below as original created for a similar accountability group I led last year, for my former triathlon coaching clients
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Introduction: Purpose of the Group
Welcome to the group! Most of you understand the power of community from our past work together.
This group builds on that foundation, with a focus on fitness, longevity, and personal growth. Here’s what we’re about:
- Knowledge Sharing: you bring valuable experience—sharing what you know helps everyone improve.
- Motivation: it’s easier to stay consistent when you’re not doing it alone. We’re here to support and challenge each other.
- Accountability: shared goals and regular check-ins help keep us on track.
By participating and helping others, you’ll create the kind of environment that drives success for everyone. Together, we can build a community that supports each individual’s unique path while strengthening the group as a whole.
Our Framework: Fitness, Longevity, and Personal Growth
We’re using Dr. Peter Attia’s Centenarian Decathlon to guide our physical goals, focusing on strength, endurance, and mobility that will serve us well into old age.
Think about the tasks we’ll want to perform later in life, in your 80’s for example:
- Carry groceries
- Get up from the floor
- Climb stairs
- Hike with family
- Lift a child or grandchild
- Put a suitcase in the overhead compartment of an airplane, unassisted
The key is understanding that as we age, our physical capacity will naturally decline. What we build now sets the foundation for what we’ll be able to do later.
So I have created goals for myself designed to develop the highest level of strength, mobility, and endurance now, to maximize what I’ll be capable of as I get older.
Here’s how my current goals align with this future-oriented approach:
- Farmer Carry bodyweight for >1.5 minutes as 1x 97lb kettlebell in each hand – full body strength but also grip strength, which is an excellent predictor of longevity.
- 20 strict dead-hang pullups – maintains upper-body strength for lifting and supporting weight.
- Chest Press (Machine) 265 lbs for 10 reps – develops upper-body pushing strength, vital for tasks like pushing or carrying.
- 12.5% body fat (currently at 16.5%) – supports overall health, mobility, and energy.
- 3 hours of Zone 2 cardio per week – enhances cardiovascular health and stamina for activities like hiking.
- At least 30 minutes of VO2Max work per week: Improves aerobic capacity for long-term endurance.
- Minimum of 10 minutes of stretching and mobility work, every day – improves mobility.
These metrics are my roadmap to building maximum capacity now, so I can preserve functional strength and endurance for as long as possible.
Accountability and Personal Growth
Just as we’ve adopted Outlive as the framework for our physical goals, the 75 Hard challenge provides the structure for personal growth and accountability. The focus is on daily discipline and consistency to build long-term resilience.
The Rules of the 75 Hard Challenge are the daily execution of the following tasks:
- Weigh in
- Take a progress photo of yourself
- Exercise 2x 45 min sessions, every day, one of which must be outdoors. Walking 45 min counts.
- Read 10 pages of non-fiction, preferably personal development
- No alcohol
- Eat according to a diet (whatever that means for you), with no cheating.
- Drink 1 gallon of water across the day.
The challenge is executed every day for 75 days. If you miss any item on any day, the challenge restarts at Day 1.
To this list I added daily habits and actions that I knew to be valuable but that I had started and stopped many times:
- Daily Journal
- AM:
- I’m Grateful for (3 items)
- What Would Make Today Great (3 items)
- Daily Affirmation
- PM:
- What Made Today Amazing
- What Can I Do Better Tomorrow?
- AM:
- Prioritized To-Do List Tracking
- Recording and tracking of business KPI’s
I participated in and completed the 75 Hard Challenge in the winter of 2021 (I think). It was one of the most “switched on” periods of my life, with fitness, personal growth and business success to show for it.
Based on my experience with the challenge, this is my Daily Must Do Checklist:
- Weigh in and progress photo
- AM and PM journal
- Exercise 2x per day – walking counts. I reserve the right to not walk for 45 min in the dark in a snowstorm
- Create and execute a prioritized checklist across the day
- Eat according to a diet that I prescribe for myself. No cheating.
- Log all calories in and calories out, creating a daily calorie deficit
- “No alcohol for no reason.” IE, no more “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, time for a GnT!” Instead, alcohol will be reserved for special occasions, probably just date night or having a beer out with a friend.
Note: I’m not doing the gallon of water thing because my experience severely impacted my sleep and left me borderline incontinent (TMI) for several months.
These tasks help me stay accountable and consistent. The goal is to build habits that support long-term personal growth.
Homework for you:
- Determine your own Centenarian Decathlon
- Translate these goals into functional exercises and objective metrics that you’ll work towards achieving over time.
- Determine your Daily Must Do’s and do them, every day, without exception
- Publish your goals and Daily Must Do’s in this thread
The purpose of this group then is to help, support, and educate each other, and to hold us each accountable to our own self defined goals and daily actions.