Learn the Secret to Success Before Reaching Your Goals with Ken Wimberly

[00:00:00] Jeremy: No matter what your goals are, no matter how big they are, it's nearly impossible to achieve them without dedication, commitment, and a thousand tiny steps.

[00:00:08] You'll take on the way and often reaching that goal. Isn't nearly as fulfilling or important as the habits you form and lessons you learn on your own.

[00:00:15] Zach: Wimberly has that figured out he's an entrepreneur fitness enthusiast, as well as the founder and visionary behind legacy of love, Inc, which has a very cool app that parents are going to download. As soon as this episode is over. Today, we'll talk with him about why focusing on his legacy makes for a more meaningful, fulfilling, and successful life.

[00:00:35] Jeremy: Hello and welcome to the fitness podcast. My name is Jeremy. His name is Zach and together we're two vulnerable guys helping you overcome struggles to achieve your mental and physical wellness goals. and Zach, I'm going to put this one on you because you are all about seeing the vision. There's the thing you're trying to achieve. And you map out the 10,000 tiny steps you gotta take to get there and you just start taking those. I'm not that much of a process guy.

[00:01:27] Like I have to sort of just naturally organically fall into the path that works for me. So how do you do it? How do you have such a clear vision of where you want to go and create that ladder to get where you want to be?

[00:01:40] Zach: Well first, I won't say clear vision. , that's not quite right. I'll say it's clearer, right? It's still pretty foggy , I don't know where I came up with this, , this is actually something my wife hates because whenever she says, I want to do X I'm like, okay, we'll go do it. And she's like, well, I don't know where to start.

[00:01:58] Jeremy: Hm.

[00:01:59] Zach: And then my, my brain kicks in and I'm like, well, here's the end goal.

[00:02:03] Well, in order to get to that end goal, here's the step before it. And here's the step before that. And it just like, watch the movie backwards. Have you ever seen Momento?

[00:02:10] Jeremy: yeah.

[00:02:11] Zach: Yeah. It like that plays out in that.

[00:02:13] Jeremy: C w you know what happens to me? A big dam goes up when there's like, there's this there's a, there's a, the end of the river is right over there. How do I get, oh, there's a dam. I'll nevermind. I guess we can't do.

[00:02:25] Zach: That's all right. That's what I used my whiteboard for really, whenever I'm in that moment, as silly as it sounds, I'll do a mind map and I don't know if you've ever tried one before, but it's, you know, essentially. Take a piece of paper, whiteboard, whatever.

[00:02:39] And you draw like the

[00:02:40] Jeremy: Oh, God, it already sounds too hard. I don't know if I can, that the dam's already gone up even on doing the whiteboard, like a it pen and paper and a map and a chart. No, I want to just start doing it. I want to just, I want to just dive into the river and start swimming. And when I get that. That's when I'll figure out how to climb over it.

[00:02:57] Zach: That's all right. You'll hit your head on it, but that's cool. I get that. And I do that a lot too. So many times I have gotten that bug or idea or whatever it is, and just gone out and did it.

[00:03:09] Jeremy: Yeah.

[00:03:09] Zach: And it's bit me, so many times, just stepping back and doing a little bit of planning and thinking about it and writing things down and figuring out what step a is and what step two is, , will save you a lot of time.

[00:03:22] Going down the road and it's not comfortable because you're sitting there trying to plan something that you don't really even know what it is. It doesn't take long, it takes five, 10 minutes to think about it right beforehand. Then you can go do it. But, , in my head I get these great ideas. And I think I've described it to you before. Like when I get a great idea, it becomes the Tasmanian devil in my head, every single detail of the entire, whatever it is, happens in a flash.

[00:03:50] And then I get really overwhelmed and I don't know what to do. And I think that's the dam that you're talking

[00:03:55] Jeremy: That might be, I've never thought of it that way. It, to me, it always just, it becomes just this barrier. It's not so much a swarm of, of activity as much as, uh, you know, and, and just saying that now out loud, like that's absolutely what it is because it is just this like, oh God, that's just so much. That's just,

[00:04:15] This warm isn't clear. Right? I don't, I don't know what all the static is, but it's just like, oh, how am I going to sift through that?

[00:04:22] Zach: and that's the beauty of writing it down. So for me, like, again, like I say, mind map, but it's, my method is like, I just get a piece of paper or a whiteboard and I just start writing every thing that comes into my brain at that moment,

[00:04:34] Jeremy: The brain dump as we affectionately call it.

[00:04:36] Zach: the brain dump. And I it's not in any order.

[00:04:39] It's like the last step, the third step, the a hundred and 70th step. Like all of it just ends up plastered on this board, but once it's out of your brain, then you can look at it. Then you can start rereading. And you put it in the right order and then you go, oh, that's step one. Oh, that's step two. Oh, look, I would have done step 63 before I did 62 and, and all the other ones before it.

[00:05:01] Jeremy: I think one of the things that's overlooked a lot about goals is that it's often not even about achieving the goal. It's about creating the habits along the way to reach the goal that are where the real fruits of the labor come from.

[00:05:13] It's, know, I, I want to lose a hundred pounds. Okay. Well, congratulations. That's great. When, and if you get there. But it's the fact that you've now started running every day and eating a little better every day and all of those little things that you'll start doing every day, that's where the wins are.

[00:05:28] Because say you do lose the a hundred pounds, whatever, whatever the goal is, it's often an really empty win, or at least a fleeting one where you're like, oh, I did it awesome. Now what.

[00:05:41] Zach: But when you're done. If you do commit to something like that, and you do lose a hundred pounds just by running a little bit, or like increasing your physical activity and eating a little bit better at the end of it, like I'm not going to lose a hundred pounds and go right back to where I was eight or 10 months ago.

[00:06:00] Right. Because you've been practicing that habit for so long. It kind of sticks with you. I mean, I know I used to eat McDonald's all the time now, if I eat McDonald's, which again, I will go hit a McRib whenever they're available. Whenever I hit McDonald's, my body tells me, dude, no, that was wrong. So like, you become accustomed to it.

[00:06:23] So like you achieve this goal and you get. And , now what, now you continue doing the things that got you to that place. Living a healthier, better life.

[00:06:34] Jeremy: that's what I mean is that those things are now habit. They're not the obstacle. They're not the Tasmanian devil that was swirling in your head a year ago. Now they're just the thing you do every. And that's where the real victory is. It's not even in the fact that the number on the scale is different.

[00:06:48] It's that now you've changed your life in a way that you're healthier and you feel better. And it's easier to do the hard things because you made them a daily habit by taking one small step at a time.

[00:06:58] Zach: Yep. We talk about it a lot and I am very, very cognizant of the fact that. One small step at a time to reach a big goal for me is really painful. And it's a big struggle. Like I want that instant gratification. I want to be able to change the weight I'm lifting.

[00:07:15] I want to be able to change my weight. I want my belt to fit differently like overnight and all of this stuff is gradual. Like you have to be okay with the little steps and taking it one day at a time. And after, , a day at a time, it becomes a week at a time, a month at a time. I feel like as a society, we have trouble with these long-term habits because we don't have instant gratification on them. 

[00:07:39] Jeremy: All right. Well, a guy who's been very successful at reaching his goals, whether they're in business or physical fitness or family is Ken Wimberly. 

[00:07:46] He has a very inspiring story about his own fitness journey. And we had a chance to ask him where it all started. 

[00:07:53] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: My fitness journey has been off and on since 2012. And I think we were talking offline on how it got kicked off with Shanti and insanity, and that got me really started on things. And that, that got me in a good track for a while. And then I get a little off track for a while and I'd get happy or busy and focused in entrepreneurial work and we'd get off track.

[00:08:13] And so in late 2018, I kind of had a mental shift and partly was, I had seen a Kevin Hart Nike promo of him just busting his ass out there and he's working out and he's talking about how he's doing it 365 days, seven days a week, no days off. And I was like, that resonates with me. I want to try that.

[00:08:36] And I, my, I had a hypothesis. Seven days a week would be easier than five days a week because it's a full on commitment right there. It's that then there's no slipping up. There's no, which days am I going to take off? There's no letting that day roll into a day into a day. And so I said, look, here's what I'm going to do.

[00:08:53] I'm going to work out every single day for 365 days. So through the entire year of 2019, I'd committed to work. I'd actually started like December 28th, 2018 is when I started and I wanted to do. I wanted to do it without having to have any type of membership. So no gym membership, no. In any type of program in there, I wanted to prove that it could be done all with body weight exercises.

[00:09:17] And that there, you still with no excuses from any place, whether you're traveling home, wherever. And so I just, I literally wrote it down on a spreadsheet and I said, I'm going to work out every day. Some combination of pushups, abs. Lunges dips, you know, on the side of a bathtub or whatever, right there, jumping jacks pull ups, it had a little $10 pull up bar man in a a doorframe right there or burpees.

[00:09:43] Right? So this little, any combination of that, and I, and I made it really easy. I sit in the month of January, I'm going to do 400 reps a day in, in the month of January and February. I'm going to kick it up to 500 and then the 600 and so on. And so by the, by December, it was 1500 reps a day, which, Wow.

[00:10:02] What, here's the, here's the fascinating thing in January.

[00:10:05] It was hard. A F you're just getting into that and not so much the daily part. I enjoyed it. There's no excuse. I've made a commitment. I'm going to honor my commitment myself, but just the reps of 400 a day were hard to get my body used to it. February, it got a little bit easier, honestly, by March, I was like, Hey, this just feels good now.

[00:10:26] And by the time I finally got around to. December. It was not difficult except for the time commitment. It's like an hour and 20 minutes to get through all of those reps in a given day. And, really enjoyed running as a, as a pastime really slow runner, but I enjoyed running as a pastime.

[00:10:46] And so that suffered as the later part of the year went on. I just didn't have the extra time to go log miles into there, but it got me in this routine. Of constant exercise and it did it just, it became who I was. There were no days off and that had other people start looking at the, watching me and tap me on the shoulder and said, Hey, what are you doing?

[00:11:07] what are you up to right there? And, and through that, Yeah, 2019 ended. And as we're approaching the end, I was like, well, I'm not just going to quit. All of a sudden, I'm not just gonna stop. So I started thinking, what am I gonna do in 2020? And I just, I made a little bit of modifications.

[00:11:21] I was not going to keep with 1500 reps a day. So I made a little modifications there. I layered back in some more, running more. Yeah, tough Mudders and events and things that I wanted to do right there. but I kept on the daily accountability and every single day, it just, it was so much easier to me and having done it for a year, it really became a little bit of who I was and my identity and, and what I really enjoyed about myself.

[00:11:44] And I've just kept it going. So I've done it now. I'm over a thousand days of constant exercise. Now people ask, what about when you get sick? If I'm running a fever, if I'm running over a hundred degree fever, I take the day off. Okay. So I, I want my body to recover right there. I do take the day off. So, there is the caveat there for, for those days.

[00:12:03] But other than that, it's every day, like this morning, I was actually listening to you guys' podcast this morning and I woke up early and I just, I walked for three. I just got up, headed out a walk for three miles and I did 200 pushups. I do set the 2010 times on my three mile walk right there and not got 200 pushups.

[00:12:20] Turn it. So That's kinda my little quick hack right there in the morning. That's okay. amazing. So let me ask you this then. , were you the one that kept yourself accountable every single day to that? Or did you have health. Yeah, it's a great question. I started off being the one to hold myself accountable because I wanted to prove it to myself as I'm going through there.

[00:12:42] But I've also had a couple of people that have asked me for accountability in the past. So I kind of shared with them my journey and my goals, what I'm trying to do. And I would just, I would just share with them what I'm doing here. Here. It is here it is. And then eventually I created um, sometime in the middle of that year, I was telling some people what I was doing.

[00:12:59] They're like, I don't want to do exactly that, but I've got these fitness goals. I'd love to have some accountability on that. So we started a text thread with three of us and that led to four or five or six. And now we've got a telegram thread to make it easier to add, add people onto it. We've got about 10 or 12 of us on that thread.

[00:13:16] And everyday. We will share a screenshot of whatever our workout was right there. And because we're all using different apps to track our workout. So, we'll share a screenshot of whatever workout was and shared in the thread. And I mean, I've got one buddy. He's just started his journey. He wants to do I've done two different 24 hour events where you literally walk for 24 hours.

[00:13:38] Tom Shea. And if you talk to him, but he's, he's started this process and you have the two of those events and I've got a buddy that wants to start on that. And he's frankly been a little out of shape, but this guy is crushing it he's out there walking 12 miles on the weekend right now. And like in a day, on the weekend in preparation for this event that we'll do in April.

[00:13:57] So I love seeing that and being a part to help.

[00:13:59] Jeremy: That's amazing. So talk to me about how important that accountability has been. Have there been specific days. Can you look back at the calendar and go, oh man, that one day, if it weren't for this group, I absolutely would not have done it. Like, has it played that big of a role in, in your journey?

[00:14:15] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: I think it's really big and important for, for me, accountability is really important in whether it's in business or in family, from what I'm doing right there. And in fitness, I think it's very important. I do. A fairly high degree of, of just self-discipline in, in if honoring my word, if I say, look, I'm going to do this, then I'm going to do it.

[00:14:36] And so that helps. I know in our, in our accountability thread, it helps a lot because some people frankly kind of fall off the horse a little bit like, Hey, where are you been? And we'll call the rest is out on the carpet and start a ping. And I'm saying, where are you men? Haven't seen a post in a few days.

[00:14:51] What's going on? And. I think that accountability definitely helps if someone's falling off the horse. 

[00:14:56] Jeremy: Nice.

[00:14:57] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: Have you always had that level of self-discipline or is that something that you've had to build over time? Everything builds over time, I think. And yeah, it'd be easy to say.

[00:15:07] Yeah, that's always been me and it started, I went to military school when I was 12 and I've always been disciplined. And so there are components. To this that have built in my life wherever I've had periods of high discipline. And then I've had periods of just falling off the horse. Like I mentioned, in 2012, I was, I was 2 0 8, I think. so I'm at one 60 today. I was 2 0 8 and 2012 when I started this journey right there. So I'd fallen way off the horse.

[00:15:33] Yeah.

[00:15:33] Jeremy: so along the way, you've discovered some keys to success. Some, some five key principles that help anyone who's on whatever journey it is, whether it's fitness or, or family or whatever it is. So tell us a little bit about those, those five keys.

[00:15:47] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: Look, I, I think one of the, the, the keys.

[00:15:50] to anything is to find where you want to go in, in your journey. Okay, And. So for me, for instance, what we'll put it on the workout plan. I wanted to work out 365 days a year.

[00:16:01] And so that's one thing to find that, and then I need to find why without a why behind it. It's really easy to give up on the endeavor. I mean, shit. Life shows up, life punches you in the mouth quite frequently, honestly, and it's easy to give up on something without a really compelling reason and a why behind that.

[00:16:21] So I think it's, it's imperative that you define, but for me, the workout for 385 days a year, that why was to, it was to prove to myself that I could do it to prove myself that I could honor my word for that long then. Big commitment. And so it was approved to myself and prove to others that I could do that.

[00:16:42] And then accountability is a big component of it. We kind of talked about that.

[00:16:45] Having, sharing the, your goal, your process, what you're wanting to do, and having someone that will regularly check in and call you out on it. Cause it's one thing to have an accountability. Yeah, a partner or a group that is just there to pat you on the back.

[00:17:02] It's another to have them call you out on it when there's, there's a real issue. And depending on your relationship with your spouse, I would generally say don't be your spouse's account partner. I've done 

[00:17:12] Jeremy: solid advice right there. If you take nothing away, other than that, from this show, then you will, you will be one step 

[00:17:18] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: Yeah, my wife is like, I do not need you to be my accountability partner. Cause I'm kind of, she's like, I know how you are and you don't need to be holding me accountable. I'll hold myself accountable, my uncles. But yeah, I think having that accountability is a, is a super key part. Again, I'll say something else to celebrate the little victories along the way.

[00:17:37] That's really important in this. Yeah. As, as I go through anything and I hit little milestones, it's important to celebrate the little victories because it's really easy to be focused on a big goal or something that's always in the future. And if you're, you're a hard charger, like so many of us type a people are, you're always moving the, moving the bar out further and further.

[00:17:58] So I've had to really focus on celebrating the little victories in there and appreciating the small wins. You mentioned finding, finding your why, and I want to ask about that. But, but it's kind of a two-part question. Cause I know I was looking for my why a long time ago and somehow I landed in a journal, just a blank journal, nothing in it.

[00:18:21] Yeah. That's where I discovered my why was in a journal. So I want to hear you, if you could, how would you recommend somebody to go find out their why? I mean, I know it's different for every single person, but you know, what, what are some good steps that somebody could take if they don't know what their, why is?

[00:18:38] Yeah, that's a great question. And frankly, listening to this episode right now could be the first time someone's even heard that con. W the first time I heard it, I was 39 years old. And I saw Gary Keller up on stage speaking at an event, and he was talking about this need for what he called a big, why a purpose greater than yourself.

[00:18:58] That is going to pull you through the really challenging times it's going to allow you to accomplish so much more than you ever thought you might. What the hell is he talking about having a, a big wire purpose? It may sound strange a lot of people, but I honestly never heard that concept at all. I'd seen the title of the book, a purpose-driven life, never picked it up or Reddit.

[00:19:20] I'd seen the title of it, but that was the extent of my understanding of purpose. And so it took me about two years. Honestly, it's kind of soul searching and digging internal to figure out what my, why was I had a wife and children or I kind of figured it would revolve something around that, but it just to say, my kids are my why is a little surface and you haven't really dug through it.

[00:19:43] And so. Long way to kind of get around. So after two years I defined my why, which really to be the, the best possible example I can to my wife, to my children and to others who might be looking to me for inspiration that I don't even know that they're looking, but. The best example I can for all of those people and rise up and be the best version of me.

[00:20:04] And that's in all aspects of my life from health, fitness, and adventure from love and relationships, business from charity benevolence, from the whole well-rounded part of my life. I want to be a great example. And when I define that this is all back in that 2012 time period, it was really aspirational, much more than reality.

[00:20:24] It's like who I wanted to become. It was not who I was living. At that time. And so it's helped me to level up and become the best version of myself. I still have to constant evolution. I'm always looking to become that better version of myself, but defining the words, putting it on paper regularly, looking at it, reading it and becoming that person is important.

[00:20:45] So the backstory. But to answer your question, what would one do to. Yeah, discover that. Y I, I think is part of what I did. I ask other people, what's your, what is your purpose? What's your, why how'd you define. Just, I, I did, uh, I probably talked to two dozen people that had defined their why and, and got feedback from them on what that was like, talked to many, many more that feel like, what are you talking about?

[00:21:10] I have no idea. And so asking them and just kind of sleeping on it, thinking through it, um, medicine, I love the idea of journal kind of pen to paper and. brainstorm. I love the idea, the concept of brainstorming brain dumping, just writing down ideas and free flowing right there. And it's amazing if you'll set a what are those things you turn upside down and the sand goes through it.

[00:21:32] Jeremy: I was just like the little sand timer 

[00:21:34] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: Yeah.

[00:21:34] a little sand timer. I've got like this total offline sand timer I can flip for an hour and sometimes I'll sit there just with a thought of one topic on my mind and just write down ideas around that topic. And it is amazing what comes into your mind without distractions, turn off electronics, turn off everything else and just focus with pen And paper.

[00:21:53] And so that's kind of part of the process that I followed through to get there. But again, it took some time to couple years.

[00:22:00] Jeremy: And maybe we've touched on this a bit already, but someone who, like you said, has never heard this concept of, of finding your why, and using that to motivate you toward whatever. What does that look like for you? Is it, is it, waking up and thinking, oh man, I just, I don't feel like running, lifting weights, going to work, whatever it is.

[00:22:17] Having to just mentally make the shift. I have to, because of my wife, like what, how does it play out for you when, when there is a struggle, how does the Y drive you through that struggle?

[00:22:28] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: Yeah. Mostly these days, it's me understanding that my children are watching me every single day and knowing that I need to show up as the best version of myself. And so the, getting up, working with. Doing that every day, that frankly, most days they don't see me do that.

[00:22:49] I am up long before they are to get it done, but they know I'm doing it. So it's, it's me showing up as the best version of me for them. I certainly want to be that person for my wife to show up as the best person in it's it's, it's become just internalized to who I am and don't get me wrong. No a definition of perfection, none of us are, or this I fail.

[00:23:12] I fall, there are some days and sometimes you give yourself grace, but Hey, we're just going to chill today and do not think it's that sometimes is the best version of yourself to give yourself a break and, and relax. And some days I give him the entrepreneur ship world. It's hard, some days you're just beat down and to get through those struggles.

[00:23:33] And it's just another level to get through all of that sometimes. And I've got a start up business and a couple of other businesses. And I was telling my son yesterday, I said, some days you feel like you're on top of the world and the other days it's like, you just got rolled over by a steamroller. 

[00:23:47] I know exactly what you're talking about. That that happens to me too frequently. The peaks are large. The valleys are also deep and yeah. That middle ground is not a comfortable place, but but one of those, one of those businesses that you have is the legacy journal, right? Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

[00:24:09] Yeah, that's that's my baby, my passion project and what I hope will be For me to impact the world in the greatest way. I've got three kids. I've got 18 year old daughter at in college 17 year old son. Who's a senior in high school and a five-year-old son in kindergarten. And when my daughter was just 10 months old, I started journaling to her in writing a story.

[00:24:32] I just. Just to write one little story every month about what was happening in her life. And then as my son came along I started doing the same thing for him and I've kept that, read them up for all these years for 18 years and started off in a a word document, just kind of typing away in a word doc.

[00:24:50] And then. Figured out, you could put photos into a word doc and then figure it out. You put too many photos at crashes, you got to learn some things there. And, Um,

[00:24:58] you know, eventually we moved to other note taking apps and just trying to figure, so I had stories for my children in these different kind of places.

[00:25:05] And including sometimes in the notes on my phone, had all these stories and I was honestly looking for a place that would be an easy digital, safe, secure home for all of these stories. And I really wanted something. Do what I was doing manually, which was automatically kind of calculating the date of my I would enter the date and it would automatically calculate the age of my children and me as I would enter this to make a digital timeline.

[00:25:33] And there's some other things I wanted to do. And there was just nothing out in the market that was doing really, even most of what I wanted to do. And so, I set out to solve that problem and spent a couple of years creating what is now legacy journalist. so That's what it is. It's, it's a very safe, secure digital place for you to capture moments, memories, lessons, things that you might one day want to pass down or share right now with your children.

[00:25:58] You can put photos, videos, audio files saved, voicemails, all of this in there, and you view your child's life on a, on a digital timeline. It's really, really critical thing. And I got. When my daughter graduated high school a few months ago, I got to gift her 18 years worth of the stories of her life.

[00:26:18] And it was absolutely magical to.

[00:26:20] Jeremy: That's amazing. What was her reaction to that?

[00:26:23] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: I'll send you a video link actually, and you can see, I, I videoed it and recorded it. It was, I mean, she cried, it was beautiful. She was like, why are these cameras around here? It's like, I was like, I've just been planning this for 18 years. So, but no, it was really just a beautiful moment. And, uh, the cool thing is.

[00:26:43] Yeah, I, she left for college. I exported everything from legacy journal to an HTML website for which we kind of allowed that to do it. And so now she's gone to college and she's got all these stories on her iPad that she can go read anytime. She's. 

[00:26:56] Jeremy: That's so cool. And, and you actually came up with this idea because somebody gifted you a journal at one point, is that right?

[00:27:02] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: Yeah. Yeah, my, I think it's my 30th maybe or 34th birthday. My stepmother Donna gave me the most beautiful gift I've ever received and it wasn't a deal. It was a scrap book because the scrapbooking was all the kind of rage. This is, uh, you know, early two thousands back then. But it was beautiful. In fact, it's, it's hanging in the neck, it's in the next room, up on a shelf right?

[00:27:26] there.

[00:27:27] Uh, it's a beautiful leather bound scrapbook, and I opened it up in it, the first picture and there was my baby picture from the hospital. I'm a little hospital bracelet on and then open that up. And it's the story of my life in photos in, in handwritten notes on the margins. I still get chills every time I think about this because she gave that to me.

[00:27:43] In two years later, she got bone cancer and passed away. And so that today is. A living Testament to her, love her thoughtfulness or generosity. And it's something I'll treasure with me for till the end of my days. And I'm curious, your, your, your daughter though, when, after you gave her, you gave her this. Is it still talked about like, do, do some of those stories and memories, like, do you get that random text message of, Hey, I was just looking at this one thing and that reminded me of this. Is it almost like a conversation starter?

[00:28:17] It is. Yes. And keep in mind, she's a freshman at college, so she's a little busy and she's not exactly reading this all the time. Like. But yes, it has spurred a few conversations where she's like, wow, I forgot all about this moment or this memory. Cause I mean, it's, it's 18 years of life. I don't remember so many of those things.

[00:28:33] And as a dad, I love it because occasionally I'll go back way, way back from a bunch of years. And I'll look at some of these old stories that frankly, I forgot the details. And that's, what's been really, really cool, but yeah, certainly when she first got to college, she would ping me. She's like, oh my God, I forgot all about this.

[00:28:50] Or I forgot that person's name because I got in the habit of, writing down names of who we were with, if we were on vacation or whatever, I'd write down some things there and input it in the journal because I knew that one day I would forget all those details. 

[00:29:01] Jeremy: So for the listener who is listening to this, and maybe more often than they care to admit is a glass half empty kind of person more often than they want to be. I may or may not be able to relate to them. Most days they're hearing this and they're going, oh man, this would have been an awesome idea. 10 years ago when my first kid was born, I have a 10 and a six year old now.

[00:29:20] And I'm going, man. I wish I, I wish I'd started doing this 10 years ago. This would have been so cool to in eight years. Hand this over. Am I too late?

[00:29:28] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: let me rephrase your thinking a little 

[00:29:31] Jeremy: Oh, I know Zach does this worry all the time. He's like, you got to look at it the other way, man, 

[00:29:35] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: No, no, but but let me, I'll give you a really lit lit here. Let me free rephrase it this way. So my mother passed away this past year and in going through her belongings, the, the thing that I found that is hands down the most pressured, invaluable, or three letters.

[00:29:53] That were written from my uncle, her brother to her about their parents. And he was telling stories about, especially about my grandma and my grandmother. My grandfather had built a big business. He was kind of at the front of the family, but grandmother was kind of behind the scenes there a little bit.

[00:30:11] And he was writing stories about their relationship when he was growing up. And maybe. There is nothing more valuable than those kinds of stories right there. So I would submit to you or anyone right now, just imagine if when you passed your children just had five or 10 stories that you wrote about them and what they meant to you, or these little accomplishments that they were making and what that meant to you.

[00:30:37] I promise you, it would be the most valuable thing that they were left behind with no matter you can leave them, you know, millions of dollars, you can limit business, you live in cars, you have houses. That will be the most valuable thing that you leave with is just a handful of stories. And this is not meant to be a death, a death project right here.

[00:30:54] This is, for you to, to share live living, be happy. But it, it just, the reality is if something were to happen, it's the most beautiful thing you can leave. Yeah, I can, I can say because I don't have that with my dad. Right? He's gone. The stories are gone. There's nothing written down. It's only like some memories that I have.

[00:31:16] And honestly, when my brother and I get together and we start talking about some of these stories, the detail, I have some details wrong, or he has details wrong. Right. I still get that way. Like I, w I'll get together with friends from I went to military school in, in high school and my memory is just fuzzy.

[00:31:34] So I'll get together with this friends and they'll remember so many more vivid details and I'll remember, and yeah, same thing for my own children growing up. There's just a lot, I don't remember, but having written them down real time, is that what I tell you, Jeremy, and know just once a month for each kid, or is that. So twice a month. Okay. So twice a month, once a month per kid, just spend five minutes, go through, look at some of your most recent photos. Grab a few of those, drop them in and write a little story about what was going on, why that was important to you. Like, the other thing that's really cool, a lot of people are doing right now is that we all collect so much.

[00:32:08] Kids' art work. They'll do all these projects is starting to snap pictures of that artwork in writing a quick little story about some of that in there so that you don't have the parent guilt when you get rid of it right there. 

[00:32:19] Jeremy: I love that. Th th the other, the other aspect of this that I think is really valuable, though, we haven't talked about is how it lives on beyond even your own kids. I mean, my wife and I talk all the time about how little we know about our parents' upbringing and our grandparents. I mean, whatever stories we have, maybe there's one that we sort of know part of, but we know next to nothing about their experiences and they're just, two generations ago or one generation ago.

[00:32:43] So for our grandkids to, to ask one day, what was it like for you growing up for them to be able to. Read this I think is a really valuable way to sort of pass down those memories that would otherwise be lost in time.

[00:32:55] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: Oh, I agree. Like in my, one of the things I got from my mother's belongings when she passed was some really awesome pictures of my. Grandparents, my great-grandparents old timey pictures right there. That's all I've got, I got the pictures. I don't know anything about their history. And I think there's so much to the power of story most of us don't have books written about us or history written about us right there.

[00:33:18] So, this is a way to document a little bit of your family to easily do it, document a little bit of your family history and for, our, our generations that will come after us to know a little bit more about us. Awesome. Thank you, Kenna. We really appreciate all the time that you've you've spent with us.

[00:33:35] Can you tell us where if somebody is listening and they want to find out more about a legacy journal app or more about you in general? Tell us where we can find you. So legacy journal.app. so.app, Lexi journal.app. You can go learn more about the, what we do. It's also. Alive app available on Google play or Google play and apple app store right there.

[00:33:57] So you could download it either place right there. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram. I got a couple of things there. I'm on LinkedIn. Probably. Yeah, those are, I guess, the places where I'm most Facebook, I don't post there a lot, but certainly someone wants to reach out to me from any platform. I do look at least once a once a week and check on BMS or anything like that.

[00:34:17] Feel free to reach out to me. I love connecting with people and anyone that downloads this app and search using it. I mean, connect to the anytime you'll get emails from me with your details. And it That's what brings me joy is helping people to do this kind of thing for their family.

[00:34:32] Jeremy: That's awesome. Great stuff. We will have all those links on the show notes for this episode@thefitness.com as well. Again, thanks so much for taking the time this morning. This is a lot of fun or this afternoon for you. Sorry.

[00:34:42] Ken Wimberly Interview - USB: Jeremy Zack. Thanks for having me. I'll love your podcasts of what you guys are doing. 

[00:34:46] Zach: Our thanks to Ken Wimberly, founder of the legacy journal and just. An incredible story of, fitness and motivation and commitment, dedication. , there's very few things in my life that I've done for a thousand days in a row. Breathing might be one of them sleeping, but definitely not eating.

[00:35:08] , so maybe two things that have done

[00:35:10] a thousand days in 

[00:35:11] Jeremy: and breathing. Yeah.

[00:35:12] Zach: sleeping and breathing.

[00:35:14] Jeremy: Well, congratulations. Those are, that's a, that's a long streak to hold up.

[00:35:18] Zach: yeah. No, I'm, I'm pretty proud of myself. You know, I set the bar low. Right. And then you're never disappointed. , . So one of the things I really enjoyed, talking with, Ken about was accountability. It really is one of those things like my own self accountability. Isn't powerful.

[00:35:36] Jeremy: Um,

[00:35:36] Zach: Sometimes. I'm really happy that we talked about it and he has an accountability group, , that he works with to get through a lot of this stuff.

[00:35:44] But, we do know a place. If you're looking for an accountability group, we know of a place you can go to, to get some of that help.

[00:35:49] Jeremy: Yeah, I know I thrive on, uh, external motivation to stay on task and to go after my goals. And so having an accountability group is a great way to do that. We have that in our Facebook group, you can join that by going to Facebook, as it turns out. Uh, there's also a link on our website. At the fitness.com.

[00:36:05] and along with accountability, there's also every month we try and encourage you to participate in a challenge this month. It's a pretty simple one. We're just asking you to do. One thing each day that you're grateful for. That's been a lot of fun to see the things that, people are finding to be grateful for.

[00:36:19] And the vulnerability of some people saying, you know what, today I really had to search. I really had to think hard about what it was that I was grateful for. So a really fun group to be a part of. It's a lot of great conversations going on in there, but again, it's a great accountability tool if you're looking for one.

[00:36:32] So we hope you'll join us.

[00:36:34] Zach: So if I can real quick interrupt you for anyone, who's still listening. I just want to let you guys know what I'm grateful for today on the show. am grateful for the fact that you are an editing master and nobody hears all the failed takes that we had to get this episode out.

[00:36:52] See you. I appreciate you

[00:36:58] Jeremy: All right. Well, I've got editing to do so. We're going to get out of here. Thanks so much for listening. Please do subscribe on whatever podcast player you're using and join us next week with a brand new episode@thefitness.com. Thank you so much for listening

[00:37:10] Zach: C I C everyone.