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Hey everyone. It's Nick Reese, and today I want to share with you my number one tool
that you can use to take control of your life.
Be honest. How many times do you know exactly what you need to do yet, somehow, your whole
day goes by and you don't do it? Sometimes we know we have to lose weight. Sometimes
we know we have to get out of a bad relationship. Sometimes we know that, if we want to live
life on our own terms, we have to start a business.
Today, I want to give you the number one tool that I've given to other entrepreneurs to
help them take control of their lives. It's a little strange -- I'm going to be honest
-- but it's worked really well for me. I challenged these people to take cold showers for one
months and every single person that has tried has gotten insanely good results. If you don't
believe me, check out the links below.
So, here's my story about cold showers and how they have transformed my life.
In 2011, I had just gotten back from this really great trip to South America. I'd been
down there for 56 days. I had ventured to three countries and spent extended time. But,
when I got back, I knew I needed to get out of this long-term relationship I had been
in -- I'd been into it about six months too long. My business was on a downward trend
and, worst of all, I was in the worst shape of my life -- I was 20 pounds overweight.
Something had to change. I knew it had to.
And so, because I was a competitive swimmer from back in the day, I knew that one of the
easiest ways to lose weight is to play with the thermodynamics of water. Now, let me explain.
Basically, when your body is heating itself, it expends the most energy possible. So, if
you rapidly cool yourself down, your body actually has to spend time heating yourself
back up.
Now, this idea might sound strange but, at the time, it was a radical solution to my
problem. I wanted to get in shape fast. I was willing to work out but I wanted that
extra "oomph!" to lose the weight quickly. I decided 30 days of cold showers were in
my future. When I walked into my shower for the first day to turn on the cold water, I
was thinking to myself, "There's got to be an easier way. I know this works, but there's
got to be an easier way. This is so painful," and I pushed myself through it, and that moment
I psyched myself up, I screamed like Tarzan and I walked up and I turned on the cold water,
and the splash of freezing cold hit me and I was screaming and I lasted about three minutes.
My goal was to take a 5-minute cold shower.
It was so cold. It was, like, the middle of the coldest part of the year in Austin and
Austin had a cold front, and I was like, "Man, there's all these reasons why I shouldn't
be taking cold showers right now. I'm going to get sick. There's all these different things.
There's got to be an easier way to lose weight. This isn't for me."
On the second day, I walk in there. I'm all psyched up. I'm like, "I'm going to lose weight.
This is easy, this is easy, this is easy." I walk up, I'd psyched myself up, screamed
like Tarzan, turned on the water, I got hit with the cold water, and that moment I was
like, "Oh, no. This isn't for me. I'm going to get sick." "Oh, no, it's not proven. This
doesn't work for everyone. This probably won't work for me. I don't know. I look like a fool.
This is too cold," and I reached over, slowly turned the *** to hot. In that moment, I
was defeated. I'd given up. I wasn't willing to follow through with what I knew was right
for me, and that hurt. My girlfriend at the time made fun of me for it and it was such
a bad situation.
So, the next day, when I was talking about cold showers, I got in a fight with that same
girlfriend. She's like, "You're not going to do it." She didn't believe in me and it
was a kind of a reoccurring theme. And so, I realized, "Man, I just need to do this.
I have to do this for me. I'm going to go take cold showers." Bam!
After our fight, I walked in the bathroom, standing in the shower and I was thinking
about the fight that just happened. I realized all the reasons I'm telling myself that a
cold shower isn't right for me are all the same excuses that are stopping me from getting
out of this long-term relationship. I was afraid to be uncomfortable. So, in that moment
I realized, if I wasn't willing to be uncomfortable for five minutes, alone, in my shower by myself,
that I will never achieve anything that I wanted to achieve in my life.
So, I walked up to the shower without hesitation, turned on the water and got blasted with cold
shower -- stood there, shivering, knowing that there was a different future ahead of
me.
2011, I broke up with this long-term girlfriend. It was like one of the worst breakups ever.
But, seven days later, we broke up, 14 days later I moved to New York City. I rang the
bell at the NASDAQ. I spoke at the White House. I was featured in Forbes. My life was transformed
in 2011 and it was all because I decided that I was going to take a year of cold showers.
Now, you may be asking yourself, "Why cold showers?" Cold showers are an interesting
thing and lots of people ask me, "What's the deal with cold showers?" I believe that the
size of your life is directly in proportion with the number of uncomfortable experiences
you can readily tolerate. And so, every single day, when you turn on the water, you're choosing
to be uncomfortable. If you want to live a big life, a life on your own terms, you need
to condition yourself every single day to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
Now, that's the reason I believe cold showers are one of the best tools, the best metaphors
that you can use in your life to absolutely transform the way you think about your life
and the decisions you make. So, let me ask you, "What type of person do you want to be?
Do you want to be the person that does the comfortable? Or are you willing to do the
uncomfortable?"
If you're willing to do the uncomfortable, next time you step in the shower, when you
reach to turn on the water, are you going to do what everyone else does? Or are you
going to take a moment, pause, and realize, "My life, if I want to live it on my own terms,
I have to be uncomfortable." Boom! There comes the cold shower.
If this sounds crazy to you, then I think that you should commit to doing it publicly.
I think you should tweet out this video or share it on Facebook and say, "I'm crazy.
I'm going to do five days of cold showers," or, "I'm crazy. I'm going to do 30 days of
cold showers," or, "I'm crazy. I'm going to live life on my own terms. I'm going to do
a year of cold showers."
Now, if you're willing to commit to this, go to NicholasReese.com and download the free
Cold Shower Therapy Companion Guide. Basically, this walks you through all the mindsets and
tips that I've developed over the years of taking cold showers. It's the same recommendations
that I recommend to all my friends, and they've seen insanely good results.
If you want a good example of that, check out my friend Joel Runyon's video where he
talks about the day that I challenged him to start taking cold showers. Since then,
he's ran an ultra-marathon, he's built his own business, and he's quit a job he hated.
If those sound like good results, make sure to watch the TED Talk at the end of this video,
and you can find the link below.
So, let me ask you, next time you step in the shower, are you going to turn on the cold
water? I hope you will.
Let's talk soon.