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cover art for 006: Jim Harshaw junior, Conversation 1

This Sustainable Life

006: Jim Harshaw junior, Conversation 1

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Jim and I have become friends since I did his podcast, Success Through Failure, twice. He's as friendly and approachable as anyone you'll meet, despite or maybe because of his reaching the top levels of one of our most demanding sports.

I'll put his description below, but printed words don't express his enthusiastic approach to life and helping others. You can almost hear the excited sparkle in his eyes at what fun and growth he extracts from life and that he enables his clients to.

I expect to refer to Jim's episodes more than most, maybe most because how he approaches changing himself is so effective for himself and people around him. It comes from his attitude, the questions he asks himself, how he involves others, and more, all of which he shares.

We get to know him in this episode---a regular guy who happens to have been an All-American Wrestling champion and now coaches people to potentials beyond their dreams.

We also hear his challenge, which sounds simple, but its unexpected twists will prompt him to show what makes him a leader for whom hardship just prompts him to grow more---skills we can all learn from him.

From his About page:

My name is Jim Harshaw. I’m a speaker, personal coach and former Division I All American wrestler.

I grew up in a blue-collar home so learned the value of hard work early on.

I have spent my life surrounded by Olympians, CEO’s and millionaires. They’ve all struggled and failed on their way to success. Just like you.

You need to understand this…

Every success story includes crushing failure. Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan, Phil Knight, Elon Musk have all failed.

When you realize this, you’ll see that failure isn’t the opposite of success. It’s a necessary step on the path to success.

But we live in a society that tells us that when we fail it means we’re not good enough or not smart enough or not capable enough. When people fail, they lower their goals and settle for less.

—

On March 20, 1998, my sixteenth year of wrestling ended in a locker room with blood on my face and tears in my eyes. I’d just lost the match to become an NCAA Division I All American.

But I had one more season at the University of Virginia. One more chance. And exactly one year later, in front of over 14,000 fans at the NCAA Championships, I did it. I earned a place on the podium as one of just eight wrestlers in the country with the status of Division I All American.

I followed a blueprint for success to get there. The same blueprint got me invited to the Olympic Training Center and took me overseas to compete on a US National Team.

Unfortunately, no one taught me how to apply this blueprint to life outside of athletics.

Fast forward 15 years, and I’m working below my potential and feeling stuck. But then I started noticing patterns in my life. Patterns of failure and success. I noticed them in business, in personal relationships, in my health and well-being, and in my level of happiness. These patterns reminded me of how I’d failed as a wrestler. And how I’d been successful.

I began to see how those lessons could be replicated throughout my life. When I looked at other former athletes who had been able to achieve success, the same patterns were there.

That’s when I knew I’d found a framework for creating a path to elite success in the real world.

Since then, I’ve shared this blueprint with others. They say things like:

“I’m shattering the goals I’ve set for myself already. I feel pretty much unstoppable. Every aspect of my life has been affected positively.” -Neal Ewers, marketing director, Beat the Streets Toronto

“What I found most valuable was getting a level of clarity on my most important goals that I haven’t had since I was competing in college.” -Sam Shames, MIT grad, entrepreneur, 4X All American wrestler

“[Your program] helped me get clarity and knowledge on my life. It helped me develop a system for getting the right things done.” -Jake Bloom, M.A., LPC, NCC, Counselor, AOD Program Specialist

“I took away two game changers that are now a regular part of my life.” -UFC veteran, author and motivational speaker, Charlie “The Spaniard” Brenneman

“I  know it sounds cliche but I really do think it helped me change my life.” -Trevor Kittleson, Engineering Teacher, Football and Wrestling Coach

My clients include Olympic coaches, professional athletes, and entrepreneurs. They’ve achieved their personal best and now you can too.

You can regain the confidence, clarity and accountability that you had as an athlete. Once you do, failure will be your secret weapon for success.

You have unique skills because of your background as an athlete. You can achieve success by harnessing the power of failure. You just need the framework to put it all together.

I will teach you. 

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