First off, yes. I take a cold shower every day and have been for the last month. No, I don’t do it halfway and start warm then turn it down. I used to, but eventually you just have to sh!t or get off the pot and ask yourself why you are doing it.
But first, maybe we should take a step back and explain why I am taking cold showers and why I thought this was ever a good idea in the first place. It all began about a year ago when Joel Runyon over at ImpossibleHQ wrote a post about Cold Shower Therapy and posted it on Reddit talking about the benefits of cold showers and challenging everyone else to give them a try. It turns out this wasn’t his first post about this, and definitely not his last, but it was enough to intrigue me. I headed over to his website to read more about him and was inspired my all the ‘impossible’ things he’s done in the name of becoming a real life Jason Bourne. I wanted to give it a try, but like so many others chickened out and settled with the occasional ‘cold finish’ to my showers to try and not feel like such a weenie.
Fast forward to September 2016. I was sitting in a nice apartment overlooking the Croatian coast, two months in to an eight month trial of the digital nomad lifestyle when I came across Joel’s writings again. This time, a little more determined, I decided to try cold showers again. I made it through three before abandoning the endeavor again, not to think about it again for the rest of the year.
Once more, fast forward to April 2017. I knew I needed a change. I wasn’t sure exactly what needed to change in my life, but something had to give in order to start making breakthroughs in my business and life to get to where I wanted to go. I knew what I had to do. One morning I said enough was enough and cranked that knob all the way over, turned on AC/DC as loud as it would go, and jumped in.
Holy wow!
That’s a new kind of refreshing. Five minutes later and I was jumping right back out as fast as I could. At that moment all I wanted was to warm back up and never do that again. But you know what I did on day two? Yup. In I went. Yelling out whatever came to mind, jamming on the air guitar, and grunting like a bro at the gym – whatever would take my mind off it.
At first I told myself I just had to do it for one week. That if I could willingly do it for one week, I would be allowed to go back. But you know what? By day five something started to change. I started to almost look forward to it, because once I got back out and began getting ready for my day I would have this newfound confidence and energy. I knew I could take on whatever the day would throw at me.
Just because I could willingly step into a bit of cold water.
It’s not just me either. There are tons of stories just like mine. Taking cold showers gives you the knowledge and power to take on the challenges in life, because if you can willingly do something uncomfortable for just five minutes- you can handle whatever discomfort awaits you that day. That confidence has helped many people get unstuck in their lives. Just read this story about a woman who has taken around 2,000 cold showers since she started the cold shower therapy challenge.
The health benefits of cold showers are also pretty irrefutable:
Better immune system
Burn fat
Improved circulation
Temperature regulation
Mood boost
Better for your skin and hair
Testosterone increase
Fertility increase
Energy increase
Flushes your lymph system
Reduces inflammation
So how has this helped me as an entrepreneur?
Easy. How hasn’t it? By taking cold showers I know that I can rely on myself a little better to do what I need to do-even if it is uncomfortable or hard.
Need to put in a late night? If I can take a cold shower, I can work a few extra hours.
Need to make a phone call I don’t want to make? If I can take a cold shower, I can pick up the phone.
Need to give up taking any breaks today in order to deliver on a client project? If I can take a cold shower, I can skip a few snacks.
Starting to get the picture?
Taking cold showers isn’t just trying to be macho, or wanting to be a part of the bandwagon. It’s a real mental shift that helps you deal with whatever you need to handle. I find myself constantly telling myself that if I can willingly endure just five minutes of discomfort in a frigid shower, then I can handle whatever this thing is that has arisen during my day.
Extra energy, fat burning, mood boost, testosterone rise, and inflammation reduction are all additional benefits to me as a business person. Those cold showers have completely gotten rid of some of the aches and pains that I had from an overly tight IT band that liked to cause discomfort sitting all day. Extra energy is always appreciated to get more done. Right now I have seven marketing clients that I handle personally, while also working on building my business further, and occasionally work on other side projects. I’ve put in 10-12 hour days easily every day this week and I feel like I used to on a ‘regular’ 8 hour day. That’s an extra 2-4 hours a day of good productive time that i’ve added.
I blasted through that one week goal that I initially had. I am now on day 27 of taking cold showers and have no intention of stopping any time soon. In fact, my new goal is one year straight of cold showers. And you know what? It’s been the most productive 27 days i’ve had in a long time.
So tell me this: What is your excuse? What do you need to breakthrough in your life or business?
If you need a little something to get you moving or help the process, there is a good app to track and help motivate you called, aptly, Cold Shower Therapy (No affiliation or relation).
Stop putting artificial limits on your life. Stop saying ‘I can’t’ and start saying ‘If I can do that, I can do this’.
It’s only five minutes of cold water after all.