What I learned from hiking the Grand Canyon will make you learn how to crush your goals.
Failure can teach us many things

Hearing those travel stories
You know when you think it would be cool to travel somewhere or you hear a story from a friend about a trip they went on?
You hear it all the time. “My trip to [insert location here] was amazing!! I won’t ever forget the experience, it was incredible!!”
What your mind does is make you want to experience that as well. It’s a basic reaction as a human and it is actually a normal reaction as well.
I don’t think it’s the fear of missing out, it’s more of a feeling of wonder and desire to experience more. I think this is the same feeling we have when we see people accomplish great things.
Seeing Michael Jordan take the game winning shot for his sixth NBA championship. Seeing Neil Armstrong walk on the moon for the first time. Seeing videos and pictures of an exotic place that a friend of yours went to.
All of these put something in us that makes us desire for more. When this happens, we either decide to make it a goal to do something similar, or we tell ourselves that it could never happen.
Your abilities start with your mindset
I’m going to encourage you to start doing the former. You are capable. You are able to do incredible things.
Now that you have that mindset, I want to share a story of my own.
I’ve heard several stories of people hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. This made me want to do the same. I mean, who wouldn’t want to hike the Grand Canyon??
Well, I put it on my list of 101 things I want to do before I turn 42. Why 42? Because life is short. We could die anytime. You could die tomorrow. It’s not dark, it’s just true.
Back to my story.
So I looked at this item on my list and decided I wanted to hike to the bottom of Grand Canyon this summer. So I planned a trip with my brother.
Booked my flight. Got my rental car. Went to conquer this item on my list.
We got there, had our water, had our snacks, and started hiking. Then I realized my great mistake.
I had never planned out my actual trip to the bottom. I didn’t realize that you should camp at the bottom overnight because it’s not realistic to go down and back in one day. Man alive.
So my brother and I hiked pretty far, but didn’t make it to the Colorado river, which is technically the bottom of the Canyon.

What did I learn from this? If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. This means that you must make sure to be diligent and put together your blueprint and step by step gameplan if you want to realistically accomplish something.
As Jim Rohm says, “you need to build a house before you actually build the house.” Confusing? Well, what he means is that you need to know the details of the house, the plans for the house, and the intricate details before you lay the foundation.
This is the same with any goal you have, whether it’s a fitness goal of trying to lose weight, or you’re looking to create more income — you need to put together a solid plan before you take the first step.
What are some practical ways to do this?
- Write down your specific goal and make sure it is extremely specific. An example of this looks like this: I want to lower my body fat percentage from 23% to 15% in five months.
- Do your research on how others have accomplished a similar goal. Did they use a coach? Did they read certain books? Did they have to have a certain amount of money to accomplish this goal? What tools are needed for this goal? Let me tell you I wish I would have had a tent on my Grand Canyon trek :’(
- Put together a timeline of reaching this specific goal. Tim Ferriss actually does experiments instead of long-term goals. He only does experiments over a 6 week to 6 month period of time. This helps him continue to be challenged and grow as he goes through life. As Peter Thiel says, “How can you accomplish your 10 year plan in 6 months?”
- Tell the people around you about your goals. You have a 95% increase of achieving your goals if you have accountability for them. This means you should not just share your fitness goals with someone else, but be sure to ask them to keep you accountable. This is essential.
- Measure your progress. We have our clients check-in each week for two purposes. So they know they need to be held accountable, but also so they can continue to measure their progress. If you know that your plan you are following is working through tracking your progress, you know you’re on the right path. If you don’t measure your progress, how do you know if the plan is working or not?
- Crush your goals.
Next time I go to the Grand Canyon, I’ll be ready! I hope you’re ready to crush the goals you’re looking to accomplish.

