The year is 1999 and you are playing the newest Pokemon game on your Gameboy.

You’ve chosen your name, gender, and picked out your starter Pokemon!

Neato!

What would happen if you walked to every town but skipped out on the gym battles?

Well, nothing much right?

You wouldn’t receive the coveted gym badges or advance the game. 

You’d be floating about aimlessly. 

Maybe you’d still catch the wild Pokemon hidden in the grass. Maybe you’d even battle them with the random trainers lurking around the corners.

I suppose you could still do all of that if you wanted but skipping the gym battles means there is no real intention when it comes to training your Pokemon.

Here’s another example from one of my all-time favorite game series—GTA (Grand Theft Auto)!

This is a game where you can explore the world freely—within the confines of the sandbox of course.

If you ever played this game you know what I’m talking about. 

It’s pretty fun to explore the world and do what the title suggests—steal cars, get chased down by cops, and aimlessly explore the city.

The series always follows some character(s), a storyline, and a series of missions that you must complete. This is what makes this game so damn fun. It’s always interesting to see how the story unfolds as you progress.

When you are engaged in a mission you are advancing the storyline and leveling up your character. 

When engaging in one of the main missions there is a goal that must be achieved or the mission is considered a failure.

If you aren’t actively engaging in one of the missions or side quests you are not leveling up your character or advancing the storyline. You are just kind of wandering around aimlessly.

Nothing wrong with that of course—that’s the fun of the game.

The point I’m making is that the fastest way to beat the game and level up your character is to actively engage in the missions and side quests and play with intention. 

Leveling up always happens faster when you are playing with intention.

This is an analogy for life.

If you play the game of life with intention, have clear goals and a direction (mission) instead of floating about aimlessly—you develop your character at a much faster rate than those who play without intention.

Sprints & Challenges

There are a number of challenges that you can engage in to transform your life.

One of the ones I completed back in 2020 is called 75 Hard. The goal is complete all tasks everyday for 75 days and if you miss even one of the tasks it’s considered a failure and you must start over from Day 1.

Here are the daily tasks:

• (2) 45 minute workouts (1 workout MUST be outside)
• Drink 1 gallon of water
• Read 10 pages of a book (non-fiction)
• Follow a diet (no cheat meals & no alcohol)
• Take a progress pic everyday

Missed one workout? Start over. 

Had a beer? Start over. 

Forgot your progress pic? Start over.

It may seem unrealistic and annoying. Of course failing to take a progress pic on day 60 doesn’t diminish all of the progress you’ve made up to that point. 

It’s not a weight loss program but a mental toughness program. 

Can you continue to show up even when you don’t feel like it?

After completing this program I built an immense amount of trust within myself that I could do anything I set out to do—that I could show up for myself even when I didn’t feel like it.

Because of the no cheat meals clause I became highly aware of how much I unconsciously ate. Suddenly I became aware of how I would reach for food unconsciously out of pure boredom or to try to cover up some uncomfortable emotion that was present within me. 

I didn’t think my eating habits were “that bad” until they were under this magnifying glass.

I gained an increase in self-awareness.

Besides that I read 6 books—gained new insights and perspectives.

Drank 75 gallons of water.

Completed 150 workouts.

I even lost 20 pounds.

You wanna know what’s even crazier?

The transformation took place in 75 days.

I mean think about it.

That’s actually not a long time. 

That’s only 2 and a half months.

When you are playing the game with focus and intention a lot can happen in a short period.

There’s another similar challenge called Project 100. It’s somewhat of a “lighter” version of 75 Hard with one of the workouts being replaced with “spend an hour a day learning a new skill.” I’m definitely a fan of that.

I’ve never completed the challenge myself but the idea is the same. Maintain the streak for 100 days or start over. After the 3 months you will have been ruthlessly leveling up your life character and spent at least 100 hours learning a new skill.

What do you think will happen if you spend an hour a day learning a new skill? 

Maybe it’s learning a foreign language, picking up code, web design, or spending time learning that new music software you’ve always wanted to pick up.

I can guarantee that spending even a mere 1 hour a day for 100 days will have leveled up your character’s skill in that area immensely.

The Benefits of Constraints

After I completed 75 Hard I went on to engage with Andy Frisella’s power list. The idea behind this is to pick 3-5 critical tasks (non-negotiables) that advance your goals. 

Completing all the tasks means you’ve won the day so give yourself a ‘W’. Failure to complete all the tasks means you’ve lost so give yourself an ‘L’.

Now of course nobody is going to win every single day. The idea is that you want to win more days than you lose. 

5 out of 7 wins for the week is a win. 25 days out of 30 for the month is a win.

The issue for me is I’ve never been able to be consistent with keeping track of knocking out critical tasks.

Some days you want to be off, right?

Sometimes you want to take off for the whole week. 

Constantly keeping track means you feel guilty when you aren’t ‘winning’ the day by being productive. 

So I ‘lose’ the next 2 weeks because I’m on vacation?

Nah.

Sometimes you just want to pause the game and that’s fine.

Here’s the solution: give yourself a set time period where you play in quest mode. 

What do I mean?

Let me give you an example.

I was recently asked by a contact I made on Instagram to participate in a 60 day challenge. Instead of waiting for the new year to begin—like the usual suspects—let’s get a headstart on our goals for the last 60 days of the year.

Simply pick 3-5 non-negotiable habits you would like to engage in and execute.

Sounds good. I’m in!

I like the idea of following a set time frame like 75 Hard (or these last 60 days of the year) to follow through with non-negotiable habits and tasks.

It gives you a clear start and finish.

After you complete the challenge (or quest) you’re free to drive aimlessly around the city for a bit–without the guilt of “losing” the day.

You can also think about this as if you are an athlete—even if you’re not. During the season you train intensely and give it your all—but when the off-season hits…? Well it’s the off-season and you don’t have to go nearly as hard.

Being in quest mode gives you the added bonus of advancing faster than you normally would throughout the year. This is because you are playing the next few months with intense focus and intention.

When you aren’t in quest mode growth can still happen but it tends to be slower because there is no clear goal or objective and you may be letting yourself slide some days.

For example, one of my non-negotiables for this 60 day sprint is to read 30 pages a day. I own a number of unread books and would love to get through them. Before this challenge I was reading sporadically and if I didn’t feel like reading—it was fine. 

“It’s fine. I’ll try again tomorrow.”

That’s what I kept telling myself. 

Sound familiar?

We’re a little over halfway through the sprint and I’ve read 4 books so far. I’m reading at a faster rate now than I’ve read throughout the entire year.

So far I’ve only “lost” a few days because I failed to read the 30 pages.

Should I have started over from day 1? 

Nah. 

“Losing” a few days doesn’t diminish my overall progress or the progress I’ve made with my other non-negotiable habits.

Plus I can’t start over and do 60 days before the year ends. That doesn’t make sense.

I like the idea of challenging yourself for a few months but also allowing room for “losses.” 

In the book “The 12-Week Work Year” the authors found that people who executed 85% of their actions were more likely to achieve their 12-week goal.

This would mean I’d have to win 51 of the 60 days for me to consider this quest mode a success. 

If I lost more than 9 days would that diminish my progress? Nah. 

But then the quest mode loses its “quantum leap” effect. The point being that you can make “quantum leaps” and level up your character faster when you are executing with high efficiency. 

Quantum Leaps With Kobe

There is a Kobe Bryant interview that I love. In the interview he recalls playing in a summer league at about the age of 10-11 with a bunch of other kids.

That summer he scored ZERO points. 

After that his determination to get better at the game grew.

“I think that’s when the idea of understanding a long-term view became important because I wasn’t gonna catch these kids in a week. I wasn’t gonna catch ‘em in a year,” Kobe says.

He then created a ‘menu’ of everything he needed to work on. He focused on one thing at a time for a period of a few months.

Every summer, he came back a little better and eventually got some scoring in.

“I scored. You know, it wasn’t much, but I scored.”

Summer after summer he improved his game and right around the time he was turning 14, he became the best player in the state.

How does one go from being terrible and not scoring a single point to becoming the best in the state in a matter of a few years?

He says:

“But it’s simple, like if you do this math on this, right. If you think about how often kids are playing, (...) it’s a simple thing of math. If you want to be a great player, if you play every single day, 2-3 hours. Every single day. Over the course of a year. How much better are you getting?

Most kids will play maybe an hour and a half 2 days a week. Do the math on that. That’s not gonna get it done. So if you’re obsessively training 2-3 hours every single day over a year, over 2 years, you make quantum leaps, man!”

This quote kills!

When you are in quest mode with this type of focus and intention you level up faster than those who aren’t playing with intention.

Even dedicating a mere hour a day to improving some skill is more than enough.

One of my other non-negotiable habits for the last 60 days of the year is to spend 1 hour a day (minimum) on focused work. For me, this has been learning web design & webflow development. 

Previously, on the days when I was scheduled to work at my part-time job as a line cook I would make excuses.

“I just don’t have the time today.” 

or 

“I don’t feel like doing anything today because I work later.”

With this new rule in place I have been finding the time to get at least an hour of focused work done these days—if not more. (Obviously, when I’m not working my part-time job I’m able to dedicate even more time.)

It’s been a game-changer to keep the momentum going.

During this quest mode I have been making incredible progress! 

It’s kind of wild to look back at where I was Nov 2, 2023 to where I am now—with just 2 weeks left of the year—and see how much my skills have already improved in a month and a half.

After the 60 days I plan on resting for a few days—maybe even the week—before initiating a new 30-60-90(?) day quest mode.

I definitely want to keep this momentum going and it’s exciting to think about where I’ll be 1 year from now if I stick to Kobe’s advice.

The Objective

Let’s break it down for you so you can start and execute your very own quest mode.

Step 1: Pick a Time Frame

When starting Quest Mode, decide on the time frame. 30 days? 60 days? 90 days? It’s up to you. But pick a time frame for you to ruthlessly execute. One that you can commit to.

Step 2: Set Your Intention

What is the intention of being in quest mode? Learn a new language? Build your first website? Train for your first race? 

When you have an intention you can reverse engineer the process. It helps you decide what exactly you need to learn or do.

For example, I was recently watching a Thomas Frank video in which he lays out how he learned to code in a year. One of the most common things people ask when learning to code is what programming language they should start with. 

He picked javascript. 

He explains he picked this language because he knew exactly what he wanted to build. He always wanted a voice note-taking app so that’s what he learned the language for. The workflow he built also sends his voice notes to Notion for him.

Essentially—pick a programming language based on what you feel inspired to build. 

When you know what your intentions are then the path will be revealed to you as you go.

“Everything was done to try to learn how to become a better basketball player. So when you have that point of view, then literally the world becomes your library to help you become better at your craft.” — Kobe Bryant

Step 3: Pick your 3-5 non-negotiable habits.

What are the habits that need to be taken on in order for your intentions to be realized? You should also consider what might be some things that you need to stop doing as well.

For example, in 75 Hard there is a no alcohol and no cheat meals rule. People often ask what they need to do but very rarely do I see people ask what they need to eliminate from their life. Consider this for a moment.

If the goal is to learn a new skill you most definitely need to make spending 1 hour a day (minimum) to learn that skill a daily habit.

Remember, these habits are non-negotiable. This is not, “maybe I’ll see if I can do this.” Pick habits that challenge you but things that you can commit to. 

Don’t half-ass this.

If you really commit to this and become self-reflective you will gain a new level of self-awareness the same way I did when doing 75 Hard.

"I'm not negocitiating with myself. The deal was already made. The deal was made. When I set out at the the beginning of summer—I said, "This is the training plan I'm doing."

‍I signed that contract with myself. I'm doing it!

‍You know throughout that process you'll start talk to yourself like, "Man I gotta—" , "I think I needa—", "Maybe if we—"

Nope! This is non-negociable.

—Kobe Bryant

Don’t trip if you miss a day here or there—it doesn’t diminish your progress—but hold yourself accountable! Get back on track and ruthlessly execute.

Step 4: Ruthlessly Execute!

Simple. 

Now’s the time to execute on your non-negotiable habits. Win the day. Everyday. 

For the last 60 days of 2023 these have been my non-negotiable habits:

• Meditate for 30 minutes
• Gratitude practice
• Read mindset document 3x daily
• 1 hour of focused work (minimum)
• Read 30 pages

Growth has been crazy so far. I keep track using a Notion workflow I created for leveling up.

Here’s the recent weeks:

As you can see I’ve missed some days but overall I’ve been staying hella consistent.

There’s more to this Notion workflow that keeps me focused and locked in. Eventually I want to drop it as a template for you all to use.

I hope you found this letter beneficial. 

— Player 2

P.S. I recently launched my own website and it showcases a lot of what I’ve been learning about web design and webflow development—including some smooth interactions and animations. ;)

If you’re reading this on the website—hope you love the scrollbar for blog reading. 

If you are reading this from the email read online here.

Much love, my friends.