Paul Orford

GC:OPINION Living like Joe Rogan for 60 days.

After the last GC:OPINION (is your life one big KPI), I thought I would turn things to the positive and see if it is possible to live my life for 60 days according to the edicts of the world’s biggest podcaster Joe Rogan.

For those who are unaware, comedian Joe Rogan has achieved global success by having the world’s leading podcast, with such a wealth of different guests ranging from politicians, comedians, to some of the planet’s greatest minds. It’s fair to say that Rogan has usurped the old traditional talk show host, with the ability to have a long form discussion along with not being under the pressure from any network to follow a certain message.

By taking on this challenge there were a number of constraints of living in Cyprus, hindering me from taking on the full Rogan lifestyle experience. Sadly I did not have the ability to have access to eat huge amounts of elk/ Moreover, with regards to sauna it is already incredibly hot here, and jiu Jitsu as I fear I will end up with some form of mild physical disability by getting strangled and twisted on a daily basis.

Having watched a huge amount of his shows he seems like a decent person who has not gone down the dark well of celebrity madness. With this in mind, I thought there is no better person to follow for the next habit forming 60 days….

There are several central pillars to Rogans ethos which struck me while researching this. Firstly ‘be the hero of your own movie!’. If you are currently finding yourself in a tough situation, draw a line in the sand and say this is day one of a new future. You can apply this to any aspect of your life, such as being in a rut in your professional or personal life,or you want to change your health. You always have to start somewhere, so design a plan and get to it today.

The second law is very important after you have made your plan. Initially you will be excited and pushing ahead in the first week or so based on adrenaline and excitement. However when you start meeting some form of resistance, the voice in your head starts telling you to take it easy or go back to your old non performing ways. This is when it is key to do what Rogan calls ‘quieten your inner bitch’.

We have this in all of us, where we have a voice in our heads that maybe tells us not to go to the gym today, or maybe put off that call until tomorrow. This leads to a slow long term decline. You may not see the results of it today, but by giving yourself permission to not operate at 100% it leads to either personal or professional catastrophe.

The third iron law of Rogan, and perhaps the most curious, is to get uncomfortable and try new things. Rogan and fellow high performers who have appeared on his podcast have always stressed that it is good to get uncomfortable. By doing this, you are constantly testing yourself and not accepting that this is all there is to life.

Like starting any new regime I had to embrace a couple of the Rogan tenets to start the daily exercise regime. At the time of beginning to write this, we were still on the lockdown so I had to quieten my ‘inner bitch’ and get down to it.

I found exercising from home is without doubt one of the most tedious things to do,and don’t let anyone tell you any different, it is very hard to apply yourself. So having to knuckle down and get to it was just pure will power before we could return back to the gym.

By using the Rogan staple of the kettlebell and Youtube experts in breaking my soft lockdown body into something that will resemble an aesthetically pleasing appearance. (Yes I am vain). Although it was hard work, it did help me get my strength up to speed pretty quickly, and serve as a good base when the gyms reopened.

Once the reopening had occurred, it made it a lot easier mentally as I could leave the house and change the regime to keep it fresh. If it was just swinging the kettlebell like a mad monkey for 60 days, that would have been tough on keeping the momentum going and gaining long term success.

The interpretation of getting uncomfortable I believe can be applied to not mean quitting your job and making a living from your street poetry. One suggestion I would make is to really assess your daily goals to push your performance. With this you really can see huge differences and you can move away from the safety of an average performance from one that is not going to get you fired, however it does leave you stagnant professionally Moreover, by taking the challenge to improve your performance you can clear your mind on what you want to do and how you are going to get there.

The Result.

Like anything in life, I always knew there would be positive results if I just took focused action. Regardless of the consequences, things will not be the same once you step up and make the choice to make effective change.

With regard to exercise. I found that this also fed into positive self talk and happiness. Once I got over the first week of torture and pain, having a non negotiable 3 times a week minimum of sessions at the gym it became a habit.

Although every time my brain was saying that I had better things to do with my time, afterwards you really do thank yourself for making the effort and the results do show pretty quickly.

A Lot of people who read this are working full time along with other commitments, which no doubt lead to time restriction. A way to solve this if you cannot attend a gym is to purchase some weights and go use a Youtube channel.I know it’s not my favourite, but you can get started and gain that valuable primary momentum.

On a professional level I would say that there have been a lot of improvements. By being self employed you always have to be proactive in feeding yourself. So the mantra I use when you just start to take your foot of the gas, is to do something today that you’ll thank yourself for in one month.

I have always found that in a B2B level there is a longer pay off, so you have to keep pushing in what sometimes can seem like a dark tunnel, So you really do have to get uncomfortable and keep the momentum going forward.

This had a net positive effect on me as I now have a regimented structure between non negotiable work time, and non negotiable exercise time. With this there is a lot more focus to get your tasks completed. To help this make the list, goals and more importantly rewards from taking these positive steps.

In a quantifiable assessment I would say that there is a difference in earnings from having this structure and mindset, based upon the deals that had started post the new regime. That in itself has been a huge reason to continue this. Moreover, honourable mentions must also go taking a look at eradicating some of the more negative elements to your life, whether these are people or practices. I can guarantee you that these will come once you start the program and you are making tangible change, you will experience the passive aggression of those who fear change in themselves.

Try to surround yourself with people who are also more forward thinking. I am not saying join some happy clappy positive cult where people can only talk on positive mantras, just try and keep the majority of your day in the positive. Believe me, this helps tremendously.

One final note, I found that by having outside projects, it helps you if you do not find your day job to mentally stimulating. This can offer you a mental escape from the daily grind by taking one hour every night to get things moving. Take a look at how much time you waste every night staring aimlessly at your phone, this is a golden time to use for building your new empire!

Get it started, get it done and welcome to your new life!

You can watch all of Joe Rogans podcasts on his Spotify channel