How To Change Your Life In 60 Days

Have you ever been at a place in your life when everything seemed to be going wrong?

Well, today is my 38th birthday, and I feel thrilled to be here.

Because it doesn’t seem like all that long ago my life nearly crashed down… all the way…

For me, it happened at the age of 32.

I thought I was on top of the world. I was making good money, had a hot girlfriend, and a great group of friends.

On the outside, things were spectacular. If you woulda stumbled on my social media back then, you woulda thought I was “living the life”…

However, little did the world know, I had a deep, dark secret to hide. A problem that I refused to admit I had… even to myself.

And as most dark secrets often do… one night, it came crashing to the surface.

I went out partying — and like I had been doing about thrice weekly for the previous 10 or so years… I proceeded to get blackout drunk.

Except this time, I was in Odessa, Ukraine.

Seeing an opportunity, a young, handsome kid maybe 19 years old, comes up to me at the bar.

We were in a large nightclub called “Club Ibiza”… and I was having a WHOLE lotta fun.

“You’re a legend!”, he said. “I have seen you dancing and talking with all of the girls!”

“Thanks man!”, I said as I gave him a high five. At this point in my life I was the last to deny I was a legend. “Let’s do a shot!”

2 shots of tequila later, he and I are going around the club together meeting girls.

6am rolls around. The club closes. He says, “Come with me, I’ll take you to an afterparty, with my friends!”

“Let’s go!”

We walk out on to the strip, down the long walk-street where all of the bars and nightclubs are packed together. At the end was a parking lot.

He points to 4 guys hanging out on a car.

“There. These are my friends”.

“What’s up guys!” I go to shake a hand.

And that’s when two guys grab me. One on each side.

I try to run. No go.

Try to punch, get punched back. Then punched again.

Try to run again. Slip and fall, literally on my face.

Now all four guys are on top of me, holding me down.

I look around to find the original kid I met in the bar. He is sitting on a car, smoking a cigarette, laughing. I scream out, “How could you do this to me?”. He laughs again, and walks away.

The rest of the morning for me is very hazy. This is perhaps the most embarrassing part to admit. I was so drunk it’s just some fuzzy memories of where this went.

Next thing I do remember, I’m riding in the backseat of a car, a guy on each side so I can’t escape.

We are driving up a winding road and the hot sun is now bearing down.

I pull out my iphone, and say, “Guys, I am not just some tourist. I am here visiting local friends. Can we call them?”

There is only one guy who speaks English, and he is riding shotgun. He says “yes”. I pull up Eugene’s #, a friend who was from Odessa and knew the guys I was rooming with, hit the dial button, and give him the phone.

He speaks to Eugene in Russian, then hangs up. I later found out that he told Eugene he was going to give me a ride home, and asked how we knew each other — if it was from Odessa or New York.

Eugene told me he replied, “New York”, and the guy hung up.

Eugene tried to call back 3 times, and no answer. Eventually, the line went dead.

The next thing I remember, I am on a residential street, high in the hills overlooking the strip down below.

My phone is gone, and there is no cash in my wallet (I had been carrying around 400E)

What I am guessing happened is I told the guy, “Keep the phone, and here is all of my cash. And please let me go.”

Luckily, they did.

What I do remember next is walking back down to the strip. By now it’s about 10am. I knew only the address of where I was staying — but I had no money to get a ride home. I walked up and down the strip, which had at this time been turned into an outdoor mall, trying to find someone who spoke English.

Finally I found someone who spoke very little English, but knew where the address was. He agreed to show me how to get home for the promise of money when we arrived.

It took us an hour and a half to walk home. When we got there I borrowed some Ukraine dough from a housemate, gave it to him, and tried to sleep.

I survived with torn jeans, torn skin, and two black eyes. I got very very lucky. It could have been much worse.

But my worst pain was yet to come. Not long after I arrived home, my girlfriend at the time, eyes now open to the fact that I was a reckless maniac, decides to break up with me.

In retrospect, she was smart!

But at the time, I was wrecked.

And I remember talking to my friend Alex Allman a few days later, and he shoots it to me straight:

“You know Craig, your friends and I have actually been worried about you for awhile now. I’m not one to say anything but maybe it’s time to admit you have a drinking problem.”

His words hit me so hard. Because I knew he was 100% right.

I asked him what his suggestion was, and he recommended I do 60 days of no alcohol, and after that, re-assess.

So I decided to do it. And I decided to take it one step further.

I decided to commit to 60 days of excellence. For me, that meant man-ing up on some other things I’d been avoiding also.

I decided for 60 days I was going to do 3 things:

Hit the gym, focus on my writing, and cut out the booze.

Nothing too revolutionary, right?

But of course, it’s easier said than done.

But this time, there was urgency around it.

I knew if I “cracked” during those 60 days, and hit the booze again, I was really in trouble.

I’m proud to say I made it through those 60 days of excellence.

I avoided the booze, got a lot of writing done, and got in the best shape of my life.

And it was that 60 day commitment to excellence that was the “spark” that propelled me to became much, much more successful over the next 5 years than I ever had before… both in business and in my personal life.

Did I immediately after the 60 days, go back to alcohol, in total control of myself?

Hell no!

It took me a good 4 years after that to finally get that part of my life handled.

But it was that 60 Days Of Excellence that got me started on the path. And one night last year, after a long night out, I was able to turn to my current incredibly amazing girlfriend, and say confidently, for the first time, that I had control of myself and my drinking.

So today, on my 38th birthday, I’ve decided to take on another 60 Days Of Excellence.

And I thought I’d write and see if you wanted to do it with me.

You can do it whether you have a pressing problem you’ve been avoiding dealing with… or just a few things you want to commit yourself to taking more seriously over the next 2 months.

Why 60 days, and not 30?

The reason is simple:

30 days is B.S!

If you do 30 days, it becomes a “challenge”, and not a recipe for lifestyle change.

You see, with 30, you you can count down the days…

You can“see the light” at the end of the tunnel… and your motivation becomes just “making it through”… instead of actually changing your behavior.

But 60 days?

That is a LONG freakin’ time!

On day 10, you’ll realize you have 50 DAYS left.

And that is a LOT.

Sooo… you will start to take on the attitude of,

“Damn… I need to learn to actually LIVE like this.”

And the result will be improvement on the items you choose to focus on, for the rest of your life.

Oh, and by the way:

There is NO good time to do a 60 day commitment!

In every 60 day period you are going to have some sort of trip or party or business commitment or whatever that can throw you off of your goal.

That is, IF YOU LET IT.

Which is another reason I like committing for 60 days.

This sh!t is hard son! And it will force you to continue to be excellent during a tough situation.

For example, you might now work out during a vacation where you woulda otherwise drank endlessly on the beach.

You might say no to a big night out so you can focus on being excellent on a business project.

If drinking or drugs is part of you challenge, you might have to go through a holiday, wedding, festival, or other heavy drinking environment, dead sober!

And yes, it will suck. But keeping on your path to excellence when the timing isn’t in your favor will show you something:

That YOU can do this.

That you can LIVE this.

That you can crush it. And take your life to the next level.

And really, all it takes is 60 days.

I’m not even asking you be a complete saint during the 60 days.

Maybe your 60 Days Of Excellence will be drinking just one night a week, instead of 3.

Maybe it will mean working out 3x a week for you, instead of 1.

You don’t have to go to, to extreme, unless you want to. You can also just commit to being a little more excellent than you are being right now.

So, are you ready to do this?

Take a moment right now, and think of 3 areas in your life where you could be more excellent with yourself.

But don’t try to do all 3. That’s too much. Pick one thing you really want to crush.

And if you want to do this, let’s do it together.

BUT… do not do this with a friend.

Some say having an accountability partner can help you in something like this… however… that can also backfire — because if your partner quits, then you have an out!

So I want you to do this one for yourself.

And here’s something unique about this challenge:

Unlike a 30 day “cleanse” or whatever, where you are miserable during it…

The best part of taking on this 60 Day commitment is you are going to feel AWESOME and EXCELLENT during it.

When you are being this excellent to yourself… you are charging yourself with confidence. You are going to feel freakin’ UNSTOPPABLE. From the moment you start… all the way until the end.

And afterwards… when you are feeling the RESULTS, and have proven to yourself that you CAN do this…

Unlike when you go to a seminar or read an exciting post… and the “high” you get during, fades away…

After these 60 days your high is going to turn into rock solid confidence in yourself.

And it’s not going anywhere. You earned it. And it will be yours to keep.

So if you are feeling a calling to take on some new excellence in your life right now… I encourage you to map this out right now, while it’s fresh on your mind…

Identify one thing you want to work on, and commit to giving yourself the gift of this commitment.

There is nothing better to set you to crush the 2nd half of this year.

If you’re in, let me know in the comments below. Feel free to share what you are working on, or keep it personal.

For me, I’m going to do 3 full days of writing each week, for the next 2 months (some of it on this new Medium blog, so follow me for more.)

On my writing days I will write for at least 5 hours a day, on a timer, with my cell and wifi turned off.

Either way, I’m excited for your excellence to unfold.

Craig

P.S. If this resonated you and you think it could help others, feel free to pass it around and hit that heart button below. It would mean a lot to me and it might help someone else get something from this.