How to plan an epic 2025 in 56 minutes | Jesse Itzler

Shaan Puri

Alright, it's the end of the year — and forget *New Year's resolutions*. We have something much better. So, in the next hour, Jesse Itzler is coming on, and he has an entire process for planning a *monster 2025*.

Jesse Itzler

I don't want to play catch-up. I want to attack—like **now** I'm taking control, and I'm dominating the year. I have other people taking it away from me.

Shaan Puri

**Jesse is an incredibly successful guy.** He started Zico Coconut Water. He started a private jet company and sold it to Warren Buffett. He's an Emmy Award–winning rapper. He has four kids. He's an ultramarathoner and lived with David Goggins. If you don't want to learn from this guy, something's wrong with you — you're broken inside.

Jesse Itzler

If everybody does the **three things** we're going to talk about for 2025 — and keeps everything else the same — then, at the end of the year, when they see me in an airport, they're going to bear-hug me.

Sam Parr

I just saw sean writing like I like take notes

Shaan Puri

these are my golden nuggets from this episode these are you know my pen dive halfway through

Jesse Itzler

"And now you added twenty winning habits. You're **Jason Bourne**. You're **Jason Bourne**."

Shaan Puri

**Jesse's amazing.** He tells us this process that he's been doing for the past 25–30 years. I'm pretty pumped about it, and I think he will be too.

Jesse Itzler

I'm glad to be back man I love your show I love that you got me back as a repeat as a repeat offender so let me just start by saying that you know I love december I think december and january is our critical months for the 11 or 12 months that follow them and as we head into the new year you know the first thing that I do like any business in america when we get to the end of the year they close out the year they have review sessions what worked what didn't work you know what was successful what wasn't successful they give themselves a grade etcetera and I found that a lot of people don't do that in their own personal lives so I like to take a little inventory in december and just kinda have a little review process around how the year went and and and take inventory on my own personal year but like no one taught me how to set up my life you know like no one taught me how to like deal with my emails and no one taught me how to schedule properly I never like I didn't take a class in school that like hey you're gonna have 4 kids you're gonna get bombarded with emails from from the school with all kinds of appointments and zoom calls that we didn't have back then and you know like your calendar's gonna fill up with other people's requests for your time like how do you wanna deal with that so you have enough time to do things that you wanna do and achieve the goals that you wanna do within work and outside of work no one taught me that and then layer in children and layer in a wife that works in a business as an entrepreneur and like how do you do that so you know like I'm a product of trial and error I tried a lot of stuff I didn't grow up with a phone I was scheduling everything on a paper calendar for literally 45 years of my life you know and and I had to figure out like what as my life evolved how to grow with it so I have a pretty cool system I'm happy to share it with you guys it's worked really well it's allowed me to to balance a lot of things and get a lot of things done and I think it's pretty simple and I I will preface it by saying that you know as you get older how old are you guys

Sam Parr

3536 right yeah 36

Jesse Itzler

Alright. So you've got another, maybe, decade before this hits, but it will hit — it's inevitable. As you get older, creating *newness* becomes really hard because you live in routine. It gets very comfortable to live in routine. I've found that the only way to really guarantee that you create newness — and *newness* is important: it's important to relationships, it's important to your momentum, your enthusiasm, your success, your excitement towards things, and your growth — is to **plan it** and/or leave room to be spontaneous. So I've become a really aggressive planner. A lot of us play life on defense: our calendars fill up with other people's requests for time — Zoom calls, weddings, appointments, school stuff — and at the end of the year you don't have a lot to show for it.

Sam Parr

What are the categories? I do **Family**, **Fitness**, **Finance**, **Fun**. Do you have, like, your own cute acronym for your categories?

Jesse Itzler

well I do my own individual personal audits for business with my teams but then from my personal thing adventure is a category for me I try to look through like what kind of adventures did I have like I said and we'll get into this in a minute you know you wanna have something to show for all your hard work at the end of the year not your zoom calls I'm not like yes in october I lit it up on zoom I'm not doing that I'm like oh I just I just took a one on one trip with my daughter to new york city I just got back so stuff like that I'm like really taking inventory on how much time did I spend with my kids you know like what did I do well what did I do what do I have to work on in my role like I really really do do that and then I try to close out the year and I have a system for closing out the year I'll share it with you guys really quickly and like the overall theme of closing out a year and I think everyone should take a couple hours to do this I think it builds momentum and I think it gives you a little closure around the year whether you had a great year or bad year it gives you a fresh start for 2025 which I think is is really really important and the theme is I wanna come into the new year light I wanna feel light and I wanna get rid of all the email baggage all the to do lists all this I don't wanna have a lot of carryover going into the new year I wanna kinda clean my hands and just be light and this might sound ridiculous it starts in my closet I go through my closet I look at all the stuff that's been hanging there for 12 months that I've never worn you know and I donate it I get a big bag if if anything is a 5050 do I wanna keep it or don't wanna keep it I just say someone needs this more than me it goes in the donate box and I start to organize my closet so when I walk in I don't have a ton of decisions you might see me wearing very a shirt very similar to this because I don't have a lot of options you know I keep what I like I get rid of what I don't like and I get super clean my desk I get rid of all the clutter on my desk I want I don't wanna walk in and I got stacks of things I gotta go through and bills and stuff I get super clean on my desk my emails I'm a big hit delete and explode them all at the end of the year guy but before I do that I put things in files I respond to the things that I owe an answer to I delete the stuff that I don't need everything else goes into a folder and I try to go in net 0 into 2025 that's really important I don't wanna come back from my vacation january 1 and be sitting with an inbox with 700 emails and just like you know just feel like I have to play catch up the 1st 30 days of the year I don't wanna play catch up I wanna attack I wanna attack so I come in I come in naked on my emails I unsubscribe I go through all the stuff that I have subscriptions to I unsubscribe I I delete all the apps that I can use again just trying to get light you know I get rid of all clear out all the apps I clear out my cars make sure that you know I have no clutter in there and I create files for 2025 where you know maybe I I'm still a paper guy so I keep records of my medical files I know people have them on digitally but I keep a paper file I still get my bills paper I put them in files so but again I I have a system so I'm not like playing catch up and so I co I get super light on all that stuff and then I can't recommend this enough I write handwritten letters to the 20 to 30 people that really impacted me or helped me even you guys man having me on you know you might get a thank you note thank there's 8,000,000,000 people in the world guys thank you too for having me on your podcast like you thought of me thank you I write I write you know a handwritten letter to my suppliers my contractors maybe a teacher my son's coaches for football I wanna thank them this year you know with no purpose other than really giving like a thank you I've been doing this bet that for 30 years when I was 23 years old and I had no money and I was sleeping on 18 different couches my entire marketing strategy was I wrote 10 handwritten letters a day and I mailed I wrote 3,000 letters I'm not even kidding and I still to this day do that because it breaks through the clutter people remember it people read their mail they might not read their dms texts flax and all that stuff but they read their letters that come in the mail and there's a different intention I took the time I wrote it I licked the envelope I went to the mailbox I put a stamp on it I put it in there like it comes with a lot of love man it's a lot different than hitting send on an email

Sam Parr

are you still doing are you still doing all that or

Jesse Itzler

sam I'm not gonna talk about anything I don't do

Sam Parr

No. What I meant is I've wanted to send email letters to a lot of people, and then I'll be like, "Is there a service where I can just type it out and they mail it out for me?"

Jesse Itzler

yeah it doesn't work that way

Shaan Puri

he's like are you listening

Sam Parr

no I I is

Shaan Puri

the audio coming through

Sam Parr

I do it, *by the way.* I send letters as well, but then I'll have a stack. A few years ago I got some stationery, and it feels good to write letters to people. But every once in a while I'm like, "I don't feel like writing— is there a service?" Then I'm like, "What the hell am I doing?" So I wasn't sure what you were doing.

Jesse Itzler

Yeah — you can't outsource it. You can't outsource it. As a business owner, I've realized that you can't outsource *soul*. The DNA of a business is the soul of the business, the heartbeat of a business. You can't outsource that. Customers feel soul, and your friends feel soul. When you start outsourcing things that, for hundreds of years, humans have been doing themselves, it loses a little bit. I found that two-hour investment... How about this: let's do an experiment for your listeners. Take ten envelopes, ten pieces of paper, and twenty minutes. Write a thank-you note — to your parents, to your kids' teachers, whoever. Say something like, "Hey, this year I just want to thank you for investing so much time with my kids," or whatever you want to write. Lick the stamp, put it in an envelope, and watch the return on investment. Watch the return on investment. There's nothing quite like it. Now, that might sound ridiculous or hokey, but I've been doing it for 30 years and people still thank me. No one gets a letter like that from you and doesn't remember or hit you back.

Shaan Puri

There was a guy who came on, by the way, and he held up—he does the same thing. This guy, **Guy Spier**, he's a value investor, and he held up a letter. He said, "I do this," but he's like, "Why did I start? Because I went to the Berkshire Hathaway summit and I went to this event." Then he goes, "Afterwards here's what I got in the mail," and it was a letter Warren Buffett had written him. It was two seconds. It read: > "Guy, thank you for coming. Really appreciate you being there." > — Warren Buffett He goes, "If Warren Buffett is doing this, I can do this too." </FormattedResponse>

Jesse Itzler

I get one from **Coach K**. I know you're a **Duke** guy. I get one from Coach K every year. Check this out — look at this. I'll show you guys something: all of these letters. I have boxes of these. These are all letters that I got this year. I've read them all. I keep them in this box, and at the end of the year it's going in a thing, and then I'm starting a new box that's gonna say **2025**. I've been talking about this for a long time, and, you know, I'm in a really unique spot. I'm in a business where people write me letters. You wanna talk about finding your mission? Imagine waking up, going to your mailbox, and finding letters from people thanking you for sharing best practices or helping—whatever it is. What a... what a gift, right? What a freaking gift. If everybody does the **three things** we're gonna talk about in the next **20 minutes** in **2025**, and does everything else the same that they did in **2024**, at the end of the year, if they see me in an airport they're gonna bear-hug me because they're gonna be like, "That was so easy, and I can't believe how much better my life just got." That's what we're gonna cover.

Sam Parr

Hey guys. A huge part of the growth of this podcast is thanks to our presence on **YouTube**. Without YouTube, I don't think we'd be as big as we are now. It's all because of you guys for watching. We see you in the comments—even the negative ones. It definitely bothers me, but I read all of them. We see how powerful this platform is for growing an audience. If you're planning for the next year and you're thinking about investing in a YouTube strategy for your business, then you have to check out this new guide from **HubSpot**. It covers everything you need: building a content strategy, understanding the YouTube algorithm and how to leverage SEO tactics. It also talks about the different content types and gives examples to create engaging content. So don't miss out—grab the guide and set yourself up for success next year. Now let's get back to the episode.

Jesse Itzler

So the first thing is closing out the year — getting light, doing all those things: writing handwritten letters, and then the other thing I do is I try to identify what I want to fix going into next year. Everybody wants to be a *10 out of 10*. No one signed up to be an *8 out of 10*. If you have certain things that are broken, even if you make a bazillion dollars and your business grows 50% and you have crazy growth, you're never going to be a *10 out of 10* if, for example, your marriage is broken or something else is wrong. What I always tell people to do is imagine you had a big blender — **the blender exercise**. In the blender, put all the buckets you were just talking about: all the buckets in your life — your finances, your health, your weight, your relationships, where you live — everything going on in your life. Put it in a blender, shake it up, and then on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the ultimate in happiness and 1 being rock bottom), what’s your number? What’s your number for your weight, your relationships, your work, your finances? You put it all in, you shake it out — are you a 7? A 5? An 8? What are you now? What I love about that exercise is your brain immediately goes to 10 and then the two or three things that are bothering you pop into your head, crystal clear. Take that number down. Maybe you think, “Oh, my finances aren't there,” or “I hate my job,” or “things aren't great at work.” Those are the things you have to work on. They’re not going to magically get better. Did anything pop into you guys' heads right away?

Shaan Puri

Yeah, so I put it all in the blender. I got to an **8 and a half**. Right away—you're right—I started at a **10**, because I'm happy. Then I said, "Well, the weight's gotta come down a little bit." Alright, the weight's gotta come down a little bit. So that's that. I want to have healthy habits that I'm proud of. And then the second one was: you know, I think I'm really good at this content thing. I love making content, but I'm still spending way too much of my time in my businesses. I really want to make that shift from **operator to creator**. I've made good progress, but I'm not all the way where I want to be yet.

Sam Parr

"I had a **6**. I had a daughter, and I'm loving being a father — she's fantastic; that's a **10**. Finances: I did really well — that's a **10**. But I'm bombarded with inbound messages and I don't have a system to say no to 10-minute time requests. The **10-minute** time requests and context-switching are ruining my life. It feels like I can't get in the flow, so I'm going to give it a **6**."

Jesse Itzler

okay a 6 overall

Sam Parr

Yeah—because of the context switching, I get so much joy being in the *flow* of something. But a combination of a lack of systems and an addiction to social media, texting, and *all that shit* has brought me down a whole bunch.

Jesse Itzler

You know, two thoughts. First, when you're doing the exercise, there's no comparison against anybody else. If you are comfortable with the money you're making, you're not comparing yourself to Buffett. **You're never going to win the comparison game because there's always going to be someone.** That's one thing to think about. Second — and not to knock you at all, Sam, I think I was super honest of you — for anybody out there, that was a six. If my son comes home with a 60 on a test, it's an F.

Sam Parr

yeah no but I'm agreeing with you like it it it brought me down a lot

Jesse Itzler

But the good thing is it's all fixable, and you have to **identify it**. Look — I'm not here to be a therapist or preach. All I'm saying is *know what those things are that need a little bit of help*. If it's your weight, then just in 2025 be like, "You know what, man? Everything's clicking. I'm gonna address this. I'm just gonna be a little—" That's all, you know. But you have to. My [point] for the listeners: you got to **identify it**, because if you don't, it just keeps *compounding*. Then you're playing... it's just harder to catch up when it's compounding.

Shaan Puri

So you close out the year: you get light, you clean the closet, clean the desks, clean the cars, you email bankruptcy, you get the files, you write the handwritten letters, you give thanks, you do the *blender exercise*, and you identify the **two or three shifts** you're trying to make. Is that how you close out the year, or is there anything else to that?

Jesse Itzler

it is it's like a personal review

Shaan Puri

And just to make it *super practical*: are you writing this down, or are you just thinking about it? Do you say it out loud? Do you do this with somebody else? Do you look at your calendar? How do you even go back to the year? Could you give us—if I wanted to sit down an hour after this because I'm so pumped after this episode and wanted to go do this—**a little more detailed instruction** on how I would do it?

Jesse Itzler

well I get really excited about getting light like you know so I don't have to write anything down to clean out clean my closet and my desk and my emails like that's all just something that like you know you feel accomplished when you do that and we're doing all the other stuff anyway we're we're we have businesses we're doing all this but you just feel really good about yourself as far as like handwritten letters I do make a list I keep it every year of like kinda just man I just think about like what podcast were I on for me was I on who really went above and beyond for me this year or my kids or my family you know I had a I went on a trip to to africa with a great tour guide I had a gentleman in kenya that ran with me every day to to like chaperone me through the jungle I'm gonna send him in like just that kind of stuff and I don't want anything for it just makes me feel good and I know it probably makes them feel good so I do all that and then I'd and then like again you just took that exercise took 30 seconds to identify what we gotta work on and then I just make a mental a mental note about it like you know I wanna get better at it this whole process we're talking about it's like super fast alright so that's the first thing the second thing I do is I have a planning system that I've been using that I I swear by it there's 3 steps and this is what I was talking about if you do these three things you're gonna bear hug me very simple so the first thing that I do is there's an old japanese ritual called the misogi and we took we took the liberty to tweak the exact definition of it it but but the way we look at it is that the the concept around a misogi is every year you do one big year defining thing so again at the end of the the year even though you're busy with all this stuff you have one year defining thing that to really show for your time over the 365 days so for example like 2 years ago and this is big I rode my bike across america last year I did rim to rim to rim with some friends in 2015 I launched a book living with a seal 2017 I launched a company called 29 0 29 like every year going back literally to like you know 20 years ago I can name like the one thing that I did that was really really year defining so at the beginning of the year I just I might not have that idea and that could be like I'm gonna launch a podcast I'm gonna quit smoking I'm gonna run my first marathon you know but like what is that one thing that you're gonna look back to someone and say how were you years ago I was unbelievable man I rode my freaking bike across the country I ran the new york marathon this year you know I think that's really really important now a it's important because like you wanna have something to show for it but b I find when you have something on the calendar a goal something like that you're something that you're working towards that's challenging you you show up at work and at home completely different you show up completely different a if I'm running the new york marathon sam I now have to say no to the things that that I don't have the time to get people because I gotta train I'm adding you know hours of training in so now now you have a vehicle to say no to things but b it's you know it's something that you're looking forward to

Sam Parr

One of the books that I read this last year — I think it was Michael Easter, maybe *The Comfort Crisis* — and he talked about the *misogi*. I had one: it was a 50-mile race, and the misogi was you have a 50% chance of failing. I ended up hurting my Achilles really badly and I was like, "Fuck." So I failed, and it was awesome — those hats — and I look forward to picking a new one now.

Jesse Itzler

yeah but you you didn't fail sam you just didn't finish

Sam Parr

yeah yeah yeah yeah but but it was hard ass work and it was awesome it felt great to have that on the calendar

Jesse Itzler

Yeah, but what you did was amazing. You're saying, "I'm gonna go double the longest run I've ever done in my life." Okay — I'm gonna do an ultramarathon on top of everything I have going on. I'm gonna challenge myself. *It may or may not work.* That's not an F; I mean, that's an A in **adventure**. You just didn't finish it. Not everything we do is gonna work. I've had businesses that have failed, races that have DNFs (did not finish). But I love that you **put it on your calendar**. Look — my kids. I have four kids: 15, 10, 10, and 9. Right now they're talking about that we're going skiing in two weeks. They're going to school and I'm like, "Guys, two more weeks of school and then we're going skiing," because that's on their calendar. It's helping them get through school — stay focused and locked in — because they know they're going to get this reward: winter vacation coming up. Adults are the same way. I'm willing to work really hard if I know I have a vacation coming up or a race that I'm going to do or something I'm excited about. So having **one big, year-defining thing** is really important.

Sam Parr

do you know what yours is gonna be for 25

Jesse Itzler

I don't, I don't, and *that's okay*. But I know that I'm going to have one, and what it does is it also opens up my mind to *adventure*.

Shaan Puri

Which *misogi* do you look back on most fondly? If you look back, you know, ten years or so...

Jesse Itzler

I did a race called *Ultraman*, which is a 6.2-mile open-water swim, a 275-mile bike, and a 52-mile run. I was insanely... I was going to defer to the following year—two weeks before the race—because I hadn't swum at all. I didn't have a wetsuit, and the water was 57 degrees [F]. So I called my friend who's a coach and said, "Listen, I haven't been training at all—zero—and I don't think I can do this. I'm thinking about deferring." I assumed he'd say, "Of course defer; train so you don't get hurt." But he said, "Absolutely not. The challenge is, if you train for a year you'll be able to do it; you have no idea if you're going to do it."

Sam Parr

"Dude, a six-mile swim alone would take three and a half hours, right?"

Jesse Itzler

or if you're a bad swimmer like me 5

Sam Parr

But yeah, also, *57-degree water*. I did a marathon in 57-degree water — it was horrible. Or a triathlon — it was awful.

Jesse Itzler

Sam, I showed up at the event and I jumped into the water the day before. I *literally*—my face hit the water and it was like...

Sam Parr

you're like I'm out

Jesse Itzler

out I'm done

Sam Parr

It's like... it's like *getting punched in the nose*. The first time you want to box, you're like, "This sucks, dude. I don't — I don't want to do this."

Jesse Itzler

but I finished it I finished it and you know when I was going through this event those those kind of challenges it's really important to break things into digestible bites if you're starting a business you wanna put things into digestible bites so when I started marquisjet they would have said you need faa approval department of transportation approval build the sales team raise my I'm like well I'm as a kiddie pool attendant for you what are you talking about I mean what what did you say the first thing I needed was faa approval well there's gotta be a lawyer that does that specializes in that let me get got that guy got what was the second thing we need like so it was the same thing here I gotta swim temp 6 miles impossible can I swim to that to the next to the buoy yes can I swim buoy to buoy yes so let me just break this down into 40 buoy to buoy swings because I can let me break the I can run for 7 minutes forever so let me run for 7 minutes walk for 3 and just repeat that cycle and that that's sort of how I attacked it in any event we pick a misogi alright so I don't know what mine is yet sean for next year but I know I'm gonna have one and just for the listeners you know just the notion of like yeah you know what I wanna have something on my calendar now you're like you've like reprogrammed your brain to just be aware of adventure and that's already a step in the right direction if you're head down in work the second thing I do is something that I've named after my friend kevin I call it kevin's rule kevin and I were took our our children his daughter and my son my son was 8 at the time I think his daughter was 9 to mount washington in the winter it was it was like - 30 with the windshield and we have a - 40 sleeping bag we're sleeping in the snow it's insane and we're camping out overnight and I'm like kevin he's a police officer in new york I'm like there's 8,000,000,000 people in the world we're the only 4 people in the middle of mount washington man this is amazing I'm like you know how often do you do stuff like this and he lights up he's like oh he's like every other month I do something one day or one weekend that I normally wouldn't have done I'm like what are you talking about he's like oh instead of like watching the georgia football game I'll take my kids fishing I'll come to mount white house go visit my college friends I'm like well why he goes well if I can't take one day every 8 weeks to do something like my work life is is at is at a balance but if I do that I'll have 6 little mini adventures a year I'm like yeah he's like well how how how old are you well if you're 35 sean you live to be let's say you live to be 85 that's 50 years if you do those two things I just said you'll have 50 year defining things and 300 mini adventures that's an insane life no that's an insane life at the end of the day if I have 50 ultraman kind of things and 300 mini adventures just because I managed my clock right like I won life

Sam Parr

Do your mini adventures in your masodi [unclear term: "masodi"]... do they stack so it's like, "Well, I already did the Ultraman—what's the ultra-Ultraman?" Are you trying to one-up them each time?

Jesse Itzler

Not at all. I'm just looking for things that excite me. This year I do have one — it's not challenging enough for me to consider it like a *misogi* — but I'm going on a tour of the world's best saunas in Finland with 12 friends. We're going for 10 days and we're hitting 30+ saunas over the course of 12 days in Finland. That is a big thing for *2025*.

Shaan Puri

Hey, real quick: if you're liking this episode with **Jesse**, you gotta listen to the first one we did with him. It's a story of how he built his fortune—his first business, how he failed, and then ultimately a mentor stepped in and gave him some "tough love," let's say, and turned his life around. He tells a story about how he started a private jet company and ended up selling it to **Warren Buffett**. There's a **Matt Damon** cameo in it. Crazy stories from this guy. He also brainstormed business ideas of what he would do if he was young and needed to build a fortune from scratch again. So go check that out—it's episode number **504**. You can either Google it or we'll put a link in the show notes below. Also, at the end of this episode we are giving away a few $1,000 calendars—his *big-ass* calendar, the one he uses to plan his 2025. We say the code at the end of this episode, so listen to that and then you can go and get one of those for free. Alright, back to the episode. So, if I'm getting this right, the *misogi* is more of a challenge—something that excites you, a big adventure. It's year-defining, and you'll get the fun of progress along the way. As you make progress you'll get the anticipation, and then the year-defining sense of accomplishment, whether you "win" or you just did it. And then the adventures are more about... is that just more about non-routine? So, just kind of making sure you're not just doing the same thing every Saturday and every Sunday with your kids—shaking up the routine with something fun. It doesn't have to be super challenging. But is that the right way to think about those?

Jesse Itzler

Absolutely. It's non-routine — it's planning, adventure-planning, newness. It's prioritizing yourself. And it's **playing life on offense**: not letting your calendar fill up. If we just sit back, it's going to be weddings, meetings, conferences, appointments. Then it's like, "What do we do? What are we doing?"

Sam Parr

How many of those things are Jesse by himself, with buddies, or with family?

Jesse Itzler

I love to do things with my friends, and I love to do things with my family. I treat my family stuff differently, so I also plan family trips. I have the luxury of time. People talk about being rich and the first thing that comes into your head is like **money**, obviously. That is important, and clearly it's an important part of being rich. But there are so many buckets of rich: are you spiritually rich? Are you time rich? I'm *insanely time rich* right now, which I think is the most important thing, especially in your fifties. I'm insanely time rich, so I have the luxury of doing things spontaneously when I want, etc. I'm *spiritually rich*. I'm *socially rich*.

Shaan Puri

"If we did a little sidebar here: the three of us are lucky to be in a position where we don't have to work. We could spend all year training for an MMA fight—an amateur MMA fight—or whatever it is. But I think a lot of people who listen to this may not be in that position. They still have a job and day-to-day responsibilities. Could you take, say, **30 seconds** to speak to how you would approach it differently? Is there any difference in how you would approach the *[mesodys or the adventures]* [unclear phrase] if somebody is not financially free—if their calendar isn't theirs to do whatever they want with?"

Jesse Itzler

Listen, I have been doing this since my journey was insane. It was crazy. My twenties were spent on couches, friends' apartments — just trying to figure it out, pay my rent. But I was still so **rich with adventure**. Every year I would go to the Coney Island polar plunge on New Year's. You know what it cost? A subway token. You know what it cost to do the trip to Mount Washington with my kids? $18 to park. We live in a country that offers the most insane rivers, mountains, national parks, oceans, hikes, and streams. I mean — conferences. You could fill up your life with adventure. I should write a book: "Filling Up Your Life with Adventure for under $400 a year," because you can do it now. I understand that mine can be bigger and it's easier for me — and that's true. But I've been doing these things for a long time. I just took my son to the polar plunge at Lake Lanier in Georgia. There's so much you could do that is outside of the norm. People think you have to climb Mount Everest to feel like you've accomplished something. You don't. You just have to get out there and do something that makes you proud of yourself.

Shaan Puri

There's a great story — do you know **Brené Brown**? She tells a story about her daughter going to a swim meet. Her daughter was scared to compete. She said, "I'm not going to do well; I'm scared to even just swim," and was feeling anxious about it. After the swim meet, her daughter lost the race. She didn't do very well and came out feeling kind of bummed. Brené Brown's point is: > "Winning isn't always about getting first place. Sometimes winning is just getting off the block and getting wet." You jumped off the blocks and you got wet — that's a huge win. You've become a braver person by having done that. I think there's something to that. When I hear about ultramarathon or Ultraman races and stuff like that, I'm like, "That's so far from where I am." But when I heard this Brené Brown quote about sometimes winning being just getting off the block and getting wet, it changed my perspective. I started doing a lot more stuff because I changed what *winning* meant. </FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

Also, Sean, I think a lot of people listen to this stuff and they're like, "Oh, Jesse's into fitness," and you know, "I'm also into— I like weightlifting and things like that." I think they say, "Well, I need to go and do a marathon or a long race." **That's not true.** I think you can do things that fit your interests much more. For example, he's got a hat that says *"All Day Running — running's your passion."* I don't think you have to necessarily do something that falls into that endurance category or whatever is popular.

Jesse Itzler

I wanted this year, Sam: I want to go to one of those silent retreats where you sit in a dark room for **two or three days**. But listen — we're going into a new year, alright, and I'm giving suggestions. I recognize that everyone has a different dynamic: time is different, finances are different. What I'd love to get out of this call is to fire people up for the opportunity we all have to have an **incredible 2025**. Go master something. Go learn a language. Go learn a certain skill. Go volunteer. Do something that makes you proud of yourself at the end of 2025. Do something that makes you feel accomplished and proud of yourself in 2025. Now, I'm not saying go ride your bike across America just because I did that — no, not at all. But do something that, when you look back on the year, you'll say, "This was amazing." There are a lot of things that don't cost money if you're intentional, if you schedule them (which we'll get to in a second), and if you *play a little bit of offense*. </FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

so masochi kevin's rule

Jesse Itzler

The third thing that I do is very simple. I found this works a lot better for me than *New Year's resolutions*, and maybe it's different for other people. Rather than doing all these goals and stuff, which I can never accomplish, I very simply—**every quarter**—add a **winning habit** to my life. For example: I don't drink enough water, so I'm going to drink **100 ounces of water** as a new habit. I'm going to make sure I'm never late to a meeting. I'm going to add a **10-minute-a-day meditation practice**. I don't know... but like, I...

Sam Parr

what habit did you add last quarter

Jesse Itzler

This is crazy, but I'm so *inflexible*, and I found something on **YouTube** that...

Sam Parr

was basically inflexible

Jesse Itzler

You know, I can't even touch my knees. I found something that's like **five exercises** you should do before you have a cup of coffee—like the first thing you do when you wake up. I've been doing these five stretches; it takes about **six minutes** pretty much every day. I can send you guys the link. They're really easy. But my point is, we are a product of **winning habits, winning routines, and a winning mindset**. That's what we all want. We want to have winning routines, winning habits, and a winning mindset. By layering them in—imagine if you did a, let's just say, a **five-year** look on life. My life's going to radically change in five years. I have a **fifteen-year-old** son; he'll be at college. My little boys now are going to be in high school. I like to look at things in five-year windows because, you know, if your parents are elderly they might not be here in five years. Mine were five years ago; mine aren't now. Your life changes freaking like this. You gotta think about this stuff. Imagine in five years you just did the three things that I said. You had **five insane experiences**. You added **thirty mini-adventures** that you wouldn't have had by taking, you know, six days [out of] 365 a year—come on, man. And now you added, you know, **twenty winning habits**. You're fucking Jason Bourne. Like, this is not difficult.

Sam Parr

Well, so all this stuff—I’m like, "This is badass." Okay, tell me how you plan it and how you actually put it into practice. You're saying... you're a *product of your habits* and things like that. What’s the habit of planning? Of thinking of these things and actually getting them on the calendar—or whatever? </FormattedResponse>

Jesse Itzler

so I don't know you know people listening to this audio or video but this is my entire 2025

Shaan Puri

if you're not on youtube he's holding up the big ass calendar

Jesse Itzler

So, as soon as I know I have something, I put it on my calendar — on paper. *I write it down.* There’s a lot of research around writing things down versus putting them in your phone. Goals that are written down... there’s a ton of research around that. As soon as I have any trips, I put them down. I put all my big events for the year down immediately: last day of school, first day of school (if you have kids), first day of camp and last day of camp (if they go), family spring break trips, date nights with my wife. I take a quarterly staycation or trip with my wife. My wife and I have our own little system: we have a date night once a week — Wednesdays — and then every quarter we try to plan something together. It could be something big, like *“we’re going to New York next week,”* or it could be just an overnight staycation here. We try to make sure we have four date nights a year, as much as we can. We also do family dinners, and the rest is just family trips.

Sam Parr

dude you travel a lot

Jesse Itzler

I travel a lot, but I put it on my calendar. Once it's in my calendar, I have **permission to say no**. "I wish I could go to dinner with you guys, but I'm actually camping out with my kids that weekend." Now I'm taking control and I'm **dominating the year**, not letting other people take it away from me. You can laugh about it, but I'm dead serious.

Sam Parr

I'm I'm not like this I'm laughing because I think it's cool

Shaan Puri

You know that experiment where they take a jar and say, "Alright, you have these **rocks** and this **sand**—fill the jar. Put as much as you can in the jar"? Basically, if you put the sand in first, you can't put any of the rocks in, because all the little meetings, appointments, and Zoom calls take up all the space. Versus if you put the rocks in first, you can pour as much sand as will fit all the way around them. That's basically the model of what you're doing. You're saying, "I'm going to put all the stuff I really want to be intentional about—the life experiences I'm going to remember with the people I care about—on the calendar first. Then I'll let all the little knick‑knack appointments fill in around that where there's still space." If you do it the other way, like most people do—"yeah, when I have time I'll do something great"—they never have time. Nothing ever happens; the rocks never get in.

Jesse Itzler

Exactly. The reason why—guys—I like to have this on **one big visual** is to look at all 365 days on one page. The reason I do that is: A) I'm visual. I need to see it. We all kind of think in pictures and think visually. Two things: 1) I can see where my gaps are—where I have more time available. 2) I can track toward my goals so much better than if they live in my phone. I use my phone for appointments, Zoom calls, and all that, but I don't like scrolling through it to find, “Oh, my marathon,” and scrolling all the way to November. I like to see, “Oh, I have this many days.” The roadmap is visual. So having it all on one big calendar is really helpful. I'm super spontaneous, but I know that if you don't plan it, it probably won't happen. Knowing that, after being on Earth for five and a half decades [about 55 years], what do I do? I want to plan as much as I can. I want to get in front of it. I sit with my wife and we sync up all of our stuff. For 2025, like I said, I'm going to Finland. We have a trip to Japan. We're going to Greece. We have put all this down on our calendar—my 2025 is already mapped out and it's insane. All I have to do is follow the script. Yours might not be as wild as mine, but the...?

Jesse Itzler

Is you control it and you can map out this incredible year

Sam Parr

do you but do you are you picking those quarterly habits as well as those mini adventures

Jesse Itzler

I'm not I'm not because I'm open I'm I'm always listening to people and and when I was when I had marquis jet which is a company that I had I started with my partner when I was I don't know 29 30 years old my dad owned a plumbing supply house I had no relationship with money we never talked about it I had no business experience I didn't know shit and all of a sudden I had this private jet company we're flying 3,000 of the who's who of pop culture ceos top ceos athletes entertainers and I'm getting access to these people and I'm really curious I'm 30 years old and anytime I had a minute with anybody at the airport if I was visiting a customer client I would say to them like I wanna know how they lived the rich like you mentioned people here might not be well they might be one day who's gonna tell them how to do where do you vacation what do you do with your money what time do you go to bed how many newspapers do you read I wanna know it all I wanna know the best habits and routines and mindset from the best people on the planet and I became a sponge and I remember asking this guy sitting down with this guy I'm not gonna say his first name is james he was insanely wealthy I'm 30 I have like nothing and I I asked him I said james how do you live rich and he's like he said to me I read and he walked me through his through his day and where he vacations and what he does with his money and how much gold he has buried in his backyard and all this shit never forgot it one thing that he said to me one thing he said to me he goes and I take 3 hours a day for myself and I'm like I can never do that well he goes no no it's cumulative I'm like well what does that look like for you james he's like oh it might take a 30 minutes sun in the morning I might take a little time at lunch to read go for a walk work out da da da da da at the end of the day it's about 3 hours a day for myself and I I was like since then I'm like and I was like why and he was like well you know if you check the you box you show up as a parent husband ceo boss employee so much better you don't resent your wife or your husband or your partner for taking away time of the things you wanna do all this stuff long story short I started taking 2 or 3 hours a day right after that meal I'm like it works for him I'm not gonna wait till I have a bazillion dollars I'm gonna do it now so time rich something that we talked about earlier doesn't mean you have to be rich to be time rich you have to be organized scheduled and allocated to prioritize you and that's all I'm saying for 2025 you might say jesse this is hokey pokey fine but all I'm telling you is carve out time for you to give you adventure make you feel a cop work's always gonna be there it's always gonna be there

Sam Parr

on a week to week basis do do do you make a list of your to dos for the week before

Jesse Itzler

Yeah, so I look at my week on Sunday night. I take it from my calendar and from my phone and I put it on paper. I use a planner, but you can also just write it on a piece of paper. I write down my day so I can move things around and prepare better. I like to have a *week-at-a-glance* view of everything. And then the last thing I would say—this is a little bonus thought for people—is: remember when you were a kid? I don't know if your parents gave you vitamins. Did they give you vitamins when you were a kid, like for school?

Shaan Puri

flintstones vitamins for sure

Jesse Itzler

yeah flintstones right I had flintstones vitamins as a kid

Sam Parr

it was a kid

Jesse Itzler

Like *anti‑Flintstone vitamins* — that would be podcast number three. The vitamins were like: you take one vitamin and it had 500% of everything you needed in every category in one little pill. I think that's unbelievable. You take your daily vitamin and it checks all the boxes. I have my own version of this that I do, Sam and Sean, and that works really well. Imagine you had all the time in the world and could do whatever you wanted to do every day. How would you spend your day? I know exactly what I would want to do. I love saunas, I love cold plunges, I love running, biking, swimming and exercising. I love doing breath work. I love taking walks with my wife. I love playing with my kids. I'm very clear on what it is. By the way: when I say "I love buying art" — I don't actually buy art. [He means he loves the idea of buying art but doesn't do it.] Those are the things I love to do. They're very simple. I inherited that from a very simple man — my dad. Let's say I have ten of those things on my list. Those are my *vitamins*: the things that make me strong and that I need every day. I try to take two or three of those vitamins. I can't do them all, but I try to do two or three. So today — we're recording this now; it's 1 o'clock — I've already gone for an hour‑long run and I've taken an hour‑long sauna. Of the three hours I allocate for myself, I've already done about two of them. My day is good and I've taken two of my *vitamins*. Now, when I show up for you guys, I'm all in. I'm not outsourcing. I've checked myself; I'm showing up so much better. That is so freaking important, and that's every day for me.

Shaan Puri

"This is amazing. This is awesome. Before I ask—well, I have one burning question. Before I ask it: is there anything else in the planning for how to make a *kick-ass, defining 2025*? Is there anything else we missed before we do that, or were those the big ones?"

Jesse Itzler

I think at like a high level trying to get people to rethink how they approach the new year I think that you know just get started on those things I mean you might not have it all laid out I don't have it all laid out yet but put the stuff you wanna do down first on a calendar or wherever you wanna put it and build a year that you're super proud of because let me let me just say this sean we don't get a lot of years we don't get a lot of years and we don't know how many years we're gonna get so shame on you if you waste 2025 because you wanna like oh I'll just do it neck the following year don't like time doesn't work like that you don't have the luxury of like I'll you don't dictate the pace sometimes the pace dictates you and circumstances change and like you know everyone thinks like I guarantee you everybody here knows they're gonna die that's listening to this but I guarantee less than 1% of our listeners have their graveyard plot picked out because they don't think they're gonna die anytime soon they don't think that like your life could change like yeah my life's been turned upside down I have people that my friends are getting diagnosed with shit you know like it changes man you can go outside and someone could be texting and you get smacked it just it could go like that you don't know so you know I'm 56 years old the average american lives to be 78 I don't know I'm not really good at math but that's 22 years if I'm average and you know I was on the lake this summer I didn't see a lot of 78 year old guys wakeboarding like the the years that you have to do in ultraman what do they say I was just listening to something they said what 63 is the shelf life of like healthy years or something you know like it's insane so you and it and

Sam Parr

It's also insane that you plan these things. You think, "I'll get to it when I'm older," but then when you're older it's like, "I don't wanna fucking do this," you know what I mean? I've always criticized, actually, Warren Buffett when he talks about *"delayed gratification"* and things like that. I'm like, "Dude — you've been the man for years; **enjoy it. Enjoy that shit now.**" Like, sometimes patience is actually...

Jesse Itzler

time rich man you don't have to be rich to be time rich

Shaan Puri

The book that went kind of viral this year or last year, *Die with Zero*, talks about some of these principles. He has a great story about one of them. When he was in his twenties, on his career-ladder climb, he was at an investment bank. His buddy—who worked with him; they were both about 23—said, "Hey, dude, what if we just go to Europe backpacking for, like, six weeks?" He asked, "How are you going to get six weeks off?" His buddy replied, "I'm not. I gotta quit, and I hope I'll be able to get the job when I come back, but I'm going to do this trip." He thought, "Dude, you're crazy. That's irresponsible. I'm going to do the responsible thing," and he didn't go. He told himself he'd do it maybe next year or the year after, that for some reason he'd be able to do it later. As soon as the buddy came back after six weeks, he didn't have the job back, but when they met up, "from the glow on this dude's face," he realized he had made a mistake. He talks about how, ten years later at 33, he finally took a career break and went to Europe. He says, "It's not so cool sleeping in a hostel when you're 33; it's different." He learned that some things you can't just do later. It's not even just that doing them later is worse—"it's just not the same thing." That was "a 23-year-old trip." He didn't do it when he was 23; he did it when he was 33 or 34, and he had to have a whole different experience. There was no going back to that.

Jesse Itzler

I think it's really important to *say yes to adventure*. It's never the right time, you know. It's never going to be like, "Oh, I have eight clean days." You have to make it; you have to create that. I think that's a really important message: it's never the right time. You're always thinking, "I'm going to miss the basketball game." There's always a sacrifice. But if you don't do it, you just have regret—you can't get that time back.

Shaan Puri

Well, you said yes to an adventure — you're coming to our basketball camp with **MrBeast**. So we'll be seeing you in **January** for one of those. **Jesse**, thanks for coming on. And if you're listening to this, you made it to the end. You're fired up like I am. We're giving away a few thousand of these calendars, so go to — **Jesse**, what's the site where people buy the calendar? I have the code here, but...

Jesse Itzler

it's just jessieitzler.com I think you can get it on my on my website

Shaan Puri

So go to **jessieitzler.com** and then use the code "**win 2025**." The first 100 people that go there from this podcast will get a free big-ass calendar. But if you didn't, just buy the thing and start planning your year. If you're not convinced at this point, something's wrong with you. </FormattedResponse>

Jesse Itzler

I had so much fun on the first go-around. You know, Sam put me under the microscope a little bit — **I loved it. I loved it.** That's his job, and I get it. You guys are awesome, man. I always get a lot of DMs about our first episode, so getting an invitation back meant a lot to me. **You'll get a handwritten letter from me.**

Sam Parr

I think people don't realize... I mean, we host a lot of these, and I think people forget this. But I saw Sean writing—like, "I take notes," like, I...

Shaan Puri

Have... just—these are my **golden nuggets** from this episode. These are, you know, my "pen dive" halfway through. </FormattedResponse>

Sam Parr

we appreciate you doing this thank you very much

Shaan Puri

until round 3 jesse thank you

Jesse Itzler

thank you