🥇 The Athlete Development Journal

Developing speed, strength, power, health, and character, so athletes get the most out of their athletic career.

Listen to this episode on your way to practice. ⬇️

You can also listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Look, I’m going to shoot straight with you; you young bucks might find this doesn’t apply to you. So, I won’t be offended if you skip this one.

Before you just close it out, though, why don’t you send this episode over to your parents? I think they’ll get a ton of value out of it.

Mind. Living a more meaningful life.

I preach daily about the power of small habits repeated with consistency, intensity, and intentionality. Yet, I still repeatedly underestimate the long-term value that provides.

Those same principles are embedded in Jesse Itzler’s framework for living a meaningful life.

Each year, he suggests identifying one “misogi” and six “mini-adventures.” Let’s break that down.

Misogi

A misogi, as Jesse uses it, is a big, year-defining challenge you commit to annually. It’s something extremely difficult or scary that pushes your limits, cultivates toughness, and provides a powerful memory.

The “year-defining” aspect is important. It’s something that you can look back on and say “2026? Oh yeah, that’s the year I did ________.”

According to Jesse, a misogi has two rules:

It must be so difficult that you only have 50% chance of completing it.
It has to be safe enough that it actually won’t kill you.

Some example misogis that people have done include:

Everesting, which is repeatedly climbing a flight of stairs until you have climbed the equivalent height of Mt. Everest (29,029 feet) in a single effort.
Cycling to a city 75–100 miles away, sleeping there for 4 hours, then cycling back.
Hiking 100 miles on foot (over multiple days) through rugged terrain, carrying all your gear.
Memorizing a long-form piece of text (like a specific Shakespearean play, a religious text, or a 20-minute speech) in 24 hours and performing it for a small group.
Learning how to play an instrument.

There’s well over a million different options you could choose from. You can craft it to fit whatever your unique interests are.

My personal misogi is that I am going to write a book in 2026. (Man, does that feel scary to put out into the world.)

Mini-Adventure

A mini-adventure is a way to break the monotony of daily living and not just letting life happen to you.

Jesse has 3 rules for mini-adventures:

You must schedule one every 8 weeks, for a total of 6 per year.
It must be something you wouldn’t normally do.
It simply must enrich your life. (There’s no 50% failure rate on this one.)

Examples of mini-adventures include:

Taking a trip to a random town.
Going camping for a weekend.
Taking a cooking class.
Touring a local museum that you’ve never visited.
Learning how to bake sourdough.
Going to see a show at a comedy club.
Going on a foraging walk to identify plants and trees in your woods.
Giving your kids a “yes” day, where you have to do whatever they suggest (within safety and reason).

Add that all up…

Doing one misogi and six mini-adventures per year is, for most people, entirely reasonable and feasible. You have 365 days per year; sparing 6 to 10 of them is nothing.

Here’s the crazy part. Let’s say you’re starting this when you’re 50 years old and you’re going to live to at least 80. If you do just one misogi and six mini-adventures per year, you’ll end up with 30 incredible, year-defining accomplishments and 180 meaningful, life-enriching memories.

Never underestimate the power of small habits repeated with consistency, intensity, and intentionality.

Body. Centenarian Decathlon

Developing your physical fitness is one of the most critical tools for living a long, healthy, and happy life.

But, that’s so much more ambiguous once you get a little older. You might not have dreams of deadlifting 700 lbs, running a 16-minute 5k, or setting a record for points scored in your men’s rec league.

How can you have clarity on how to train if you don’t know what you’re training for?

Let me introduce to you Dr. Peter Attia’s “Centenarian Decathlon.”

With this method of goal-setting, you pick 10 things that you want to still be able to do in the last decade of your life.

Instead of living a life that’s debilitated and fragile for your last years on earth, you’re going to train to be able to do specific things that you enjoy doing.

An example Centenarian Decathlon from the Stanford website includes:

I enjoy bike rides with my family, so I want to be able to ride a bike for 1 hour.
I enjoy traveling, so I want to be able to lift a 20-pound suitcase into the overhead compartment.
I enjoy dancing with my friends and family in the kitchen, so I want to be able to perform 30 jumping jacks in one set for aerobic endurance.
I live in the snow and value being independent, so I want to be able to shovel my own driveway.
I enjoy playing golf with friends, so I want to be able to play 18 holes of golf.
I enjoy walking my dog, so I want to be able to walk 10,000 steps in a day.
I enjoy cooking, so I want to be able to lift a cast iron skillet with one hand, carry two five-pound bags of groceries up four flights of stairs, and open a jar by myself.
I enjoy being in nature, so I want to be able to hike up a hill for 10 minutes without stopping.
I enjoy swimming, so I want to be able to tread water for 5 minutes.
I enjoy playing on the ground with children, so I want to be able to get up off the floor using only one arm for support.

Or maybe you enjoy gardening, or making sourdough, or whatever else. What makes life fulfilling for you?

Don’t overthink it.

Just brainstorm a list of 10 things that really matter to you that would make life meaningful and fulfilling when you’re 100 years old.

Then, turn those into measurables and build process goals that work towards those.

Soul. What is true in 2026, but won’t be true in the future?

Life is full of infinite possibilities of what you can do, but many of them have a time-limit on their maximal potency. There are some things that you can do now that you either can’t do or won’t be as meaningful/enjoyable in the future.

Many people talk about how much they want to travel when they retire, but the physical toll of travel increases each year. If you put it off too long, you might never do it or you might not enjoy it nearly as much as you would if you did it right now.

For me, I need to be hyper-aware of how my little girls currently have no obligations (like school or sports) and actually love spending time with us. That won’t be so true in 5 to 10 years. So, shifting my schedule to be home during the day won’t have the same impact in 5 years that it does today.

Or, my girls both currently LOVE Disney princesses. That likely won’t be as true in a few years. So, if we want to maximize the magic of Disney World, we need to scrounge up the cash and find a way to get down there this year.

To help decide what you should do right now, you should make a list of what is true now, but won’t be true in the future. Then, take those facts and think about the repercussions of how you should currently act.

To make that more concrete, let’s take a look at some of the items on my list. I’ve removed the stuff that is a bit too personal to share in public, but I encourage you to get very real and authentic during this process. Some of it might be sobering in the moment, but it will help you live more intentionally right now.

In 2027…

Grace will be in school 5 days per week. (So, I should aim to be home as much as possible during the day now. In the coming years, I can work more during the day, because she’ll be in school.)
Grace might be over her princess obsessed phase. (So, we should go to Disney now.)
I won’t be the only full-time coach, coaching sessions 5 days per week. (So, I will have more time for non-coaching work (like growing the newsletter) in the future. I can hold off on that now, to be more focused on my current obligations.)

In 2031…

Evie will be in school 5 days per week. (So, I should be home more during the day now as above.)
Champ will be elderly and much less mobile. (So, we should get him a puppy brother soon, so he can enjoy and play with him.)

In 2036…

From the damage during my football career, my hips might not be able to handle competitively playing basketball and flag football. (So, I should start playing again this year, to avoid the “what-ifs”.)
Grace will not think we’re cool anymore. (So, I should drop whatever I’m doing when she wants to play, because she won’t be inviting me much longer.)

If you decide to pick a misogi and mini-adventures, build your centenarian decathlon, or get clarity with your future list, shoot me an email. I’d love to hear about it!

Let’s wrap it up with a couple important things…

This newsletter and podcast is completely free. I spend many hours each week researching, writing, illustrating, recording, editing, and uploading. The best way you can support it and allow it to continue is to share it with people you know. You can just send them to gtperformance.co/newsletter and they can subscribe there!
Everything in these newsletters, podcasts, social media, and on our website is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice for you or your athlete. Consult directly with a healthcare professional.

Thanks so much for your help in spreading the word about athlete development!

Be >,

Zach

Dr. Zach Guiser, PT, DPT, CSCS