One of the goals of this blog is to free up more time in order to do the stuff you want. I used to be someone who would take 20-30 min hot showers every day and it would take up a sizable portion of time in the morning. Add in going to the bathroom and shaving and you are looking at a possible 45 minute chunk of time. That all changed when I started taking cold showers. I’ve read about it on a few sites and decided to take the plunge as part of an overall change in my actions.
Cold showers are an incredible habit to start, that will boost your general mindset towards getting shit done.
Why take cold showers?
Cold showers are a really good way to wake the fuck up. I was always someone who would be lazy getting out of bed. I would hit the snooze button a couple times. Since starting the cold shower regimen, once the cold water hits your body it shocks the shit ouf of you and you feel energized. All previous feelings of sleepiness are destroyed in seconds. Having this knowledge shows you that the feelings you have when you just want to turn over and get under the covers are a bunch of bullshit. This knowledge sets you free in that you know that if you just get up and hit the cold shower, you’ll be good to go. After the cold shower you feel outstanding and ready to crush a new day.
After doing a little research on the internet it turns out that cold showers are also very healthy for the body. The cold water improves blood circulation and doesn’t dry out your skin and your hair like hot showers do. This gets rid of the need for stupid moisterizers and body lotions saving you more money. You will also save money by the mere fact that you won’t be using your heating system to heat the water. One time at a house I was living at, my roommate forgot to pay the gas bill and they turned the heat off. I woke up the next day and had a great lukewarm shower. Because it takes the heating people around 3 days to come out to turn it back on I had to endure another ice cold shower the next day. I was really pissed off. Little did I know that by embracing the cold shower I could have been reducing the bill and saving a bunch of time. Live and learn.
Another benefit of cold showers is that it saves you time not just by getting you up faster, but also because when you are taking a cold shower, it’s kinda uncomfortable, and thus you want to take as short a shower as possible. Those 20 minute showers are a thing of the past. I try and make it a game as to how fast I can go now. We’re talking about 2-5 minutes now. This is the minimum effective dose in action, take the shortest amount of time you need to get the task done in an effective manner. This allows me more time to get more important stuff done.
The Principal reason cold showers dominate
The main reason of starting a cold shower habit is that it builds the mindset of a fucking champion, meaning the guy willing to bear a little pain in order for better results in the long term. This mindset is what makes you a winner, and embracing it in all facets of your life is key. The logic is that if you can’t even bare a 2 minute cold shower, how can you bare the pain of starting a business? Or how about the pain of opening yourself up to rejection in your relationships. Or overcoming the pain of the unknown by quitting your meaningless job? If you find that you have been wanting to do this or that, but never taking action for years, perhaps you need some cold shower training in order to steel yourself to the idea of bearing pain.
It isn’t relaxing at all to shock yourself with cold water. Your mind will start to race and before you jump in it will start coming up with excuses or start looking in the mirror to buy time. It may even say to put the water on lukewarm first, then at the end change to cold. Don’t give into that bullshit. After about 30 seconds of the cold water you will get used ot it and will be able to power through to the end.
This is all about training yourself to push past your normal comfort level. If you are in a shitty situation in life, it means your current comfort level is too narrow. Obviously it hasn’t been working out for you so you have to expand it. Perhaps that means doing the little things like this before you tackle the big things. IF you are reading this thinking that this is really silly, i have a serious question for you. If you have to compromise on taking a fucking 2 minute cold shower, how the hell will you be able to be steadfast in building a business for yourself? What about getting past the muscle soreness after just getting back into working out?
Perhaps this is a bit extreme, but if you can’t do cold showers maybe you should just forget about improving other areas of your life, and resolve to the fact that your life will be boring, because improving other areas will be wayyyy more daunting than 2 minutes of discomfort. Trust me there buddy.
Believe me, it will be tempting to turn on that hot water in the first couple seconds, just like it will be tempting to tell yourself to sit on the couch and watch Fast Five for the 30th time, but don’t give in to temptation. Master yourself and you master the universe.
Taking action
Tomorrow morning start fresh. Tell yourself that for the next week I will take a cold shower in the morning. Commit to a whole week and by the end of the week see how you feel. If you can’t hack it, just go back to being normal.
Don’t start with warm water then turn to cold at some point, that shit is weak as fuck. Turn the cold water on and jump in. Stick your chest out and go fully in the water. No standing in the back of the shower letting the water miss you. Stick your head fully in, and get your whole body immersed in the water. Doing things gradually is bullshit. Don’t ever do anything gradually. Just jump in and fucking do it.
Remember that your brain will try to stop you and will attempt to avoid discomfort. Push past that garbage and you will feel much better about yourself and your day. Small victories lead to big victories.
Recent Comments