Joe Rogan Experience #1127 — Jesse Itzler Transcript

Transcript

0:00 four three two one boom so what um hundred mile man or hundred man what is it the 100 mile man Oh, really? it's a long way it's a long fucking way we're just about talking right before the podcast about how Miss America yanked off all. They loosen up fast. fast fast i don't know Well, Okay. Yeah, it's getting a lot of talk. you even want a who i'd most like to fuck contest because that's what it is i mean that's really

3:09 Really? Yeah. Hmm. And the content. This is your new book. Go like this for an hour, your finger will fall off. 500 acres, kind of in the middle of nowhere. It's almost like the guy who goes off into the woods to write a book, like being with a monk, My life is filled with bullshit. It was in upstate new There was a bed. You know, like I'm here. And I'm like, why isn't my timer buzzed?

7:49 And I said to my- And I had a really hard time with it. What was the commitment? The commitment was 15 days. That's how they make money. They breed German shepherds. That's how they make money. The same guys? of this road that leads up to the monastery. And both of those homes had German shepherds as well I'm just trying to get some exercise. I mean, I live in a world of to-do lists, man.

10:35 He'd probably have been super confused. Really interesting. They're young twenties in the same spot. And so it's been a passion of love and labor, So really their only possession is a driver's license. So they breed German shepherds. anytime you're in the presence of the people that are the best in the world of what they do one-year-old golden retriever and he has different rules for different people and he knows who he can get away with what with like uh my

14:21 He's super chill. But it's just like paws on you and shit, you know? So the first day I got there, So Rainbow, this dog, would walk around unwavering from point A to point B. And the monk said to me at the end, he's like, it's just like who are really, really smart dogs. and they just, like, they have a high kill drive, and they're super hyper. He's kind of a dick.

17:48 Yeah. If you're holding like a stick, like on command. Yeah. Yeah. when the dog passed away, and train these dogs that there was demand and they just scaled it like any I mean, they ran this thing super efficiently. Yeah. Jesus. Yeah. And periods of it, So I went up there, eyes wide open. So I didn't do a lot of research around them or how they made money or this or

22:01 When that 15th day came and would you get in a car and drive away from that place? I was already kind of making excuses. and you're like i dropped out right and you feel like you know so um anyway i decided like you Yeah. The guy, I mean, went in there in his 20s? So it's not, we didn't sacrifice it. the news so they get a sense of just like you know kind of where we are, state of the union. If we're at war. Yeah. If there's a nuclear meltdown.

24:37 I'm sure we're being attacked right now, there weren't netflix options do they have internet uh i had no access to the internet And we were all just hanging around, and he seemed oddly at peace. and especially at 20, life is so chaotic. yeah they must have freaked you out just when you did this book i mean i freaked them out Yeah. carry me check whatever they have

28:21 wow And I settled into it. I showered once. No one can schedule appointments with me. And in that tank, there's no input. And there's a real thing called decision fatigue. I'm going to take the other car because I want to park, and the blue car is too big. you know, I didn't have any of that. So it freed up all this energy. I was making like massive

31:34 The actual years that you have left to be active and do the shit that we want to do, Like I don't spend any time alone. And I was losing that because I was so distracted. So once I started to get that alone time, it gives you an edge, you know? takeaways won't won't wear off like I'm already back on my phone. and continuing to build there's things 88 I have a good relationship with my parents I reverse engineered my life. So let me give you an example. My parents are 88.

34:23 I see my parents twice a year. That means I have years left with my parents. I see my parents twice a year. Because I only have a limited amount of time with them. So I just started looking at stuff like that and became really aware when I'm in moments I'd be checking. this, so I wouldn't necessarily say it was a change, but I take three hours a day for myself,

36:16 if I'm doing something big. whatever. Cause I don't want to resent my wife or my boss or anybody for taking away a day. You still have six hours I'm not like guilty about it at all. A hundred miles an hour? hour yeah what the fuck is that The amount of darkness? And I was talking to my wife about it. I feel like an ass. Who knows if I'm going to be healthy enough next winter.

39:34 but we're like, And I turn to him and I'm like, Kevin, how often do you do shit like this? if I can't carve out a day or two to take some kind of adventure to put on my life resume like, man, I want to live with urgency, Hey, yeah, Jess, can you take, can you, um, do you think you can meet me for lunch? I want to A friend of mine. No. It's going to be one person every day or so with some new request.

43:06 my wife said so you stopped watching football I do. And now that doesn't mean I'm not going to go to a movie. That's family. That's well, it's part of That's actually very funny. Exactly. So I have one journal that has everything I need to do. And then I have my daily from that list. I pick the most important things that have to get done. you think do you convey that in the book i do i mean i i've been living i feel like i've been

47:20 That's a way to look at it. 30 years I'm going to be 80. If you keep doing that, there are people that look ahead too much. Nah, man. I was signed to a record label called Delicious Vinyl. I don't get picked up for a second album. for a new apartment over the weekend, I have nowhere to go. I write this song for the New York Knicks and i just realized that there's an opportunity to write theme songs for all these professional

50:09 He's like- Yes. And I sit down. In Manhattan. I'm just setting the stage of this conversation and i go in and i tell him the story about the 10 and he says to me He, those were the years, so and that stuck with me man at 21 years old it stuck with me and realized that like man i got to I said, I will. The Knicks paid me, this is just a crazy part of my life, but they gave me $2,500 to do

53:09 What a motherfucker. I called my father my They essentially sign you to these contracts and then take a piece of everything. Get me on MTV. And what you have is what they don't have. How much the fucking building costs, I've signed, you know, my own way. It's really weird because who the fuck is buying albums now? They just figure out a way fucking streaming companies.

56:08 Because the artists get, like, no money. trying to stop these streaming companies from ripping off these artists. You're broke. new contract right i don't know it's true with audiobooks too you know i mean even books now I couldn't believe how many people hit me about the audio. It made me angry that I did the read so quickly. Maybe 30%, 40%. So the listeners are listening to us right now like we're on speed.

59:03 i just i don't know if they'll change their lives, but I think it, I hope, I hope just don't learn. Called the Misogi. Like I'm sure after you did your 100-mile run, like when it was over, that I was in going into it, I felt so relieved when it was done because I was just like, man, I did it and no one can take it Somewhere around there. runner. And I worked towards that goal. Like out of college, I was like, just got out of college.

1:03:38 They could run two miles if they had to. of my life I was living in this, like, comfort. time goes fast. And I was just- The people who are listening, I don't even know where- So this run showed me, man, I was under indexing so much what I thought I was capable of. And when I took my shoes off, my feet were so fucked up. My blisters were really bad.

1:06:15 it was all well well well worth it once i was done i realized like i'm okay i'm not in shock but I also have one of my biggest regrets like my hips And I didn't know what I was wearing, cotton. Really? Just all fruit? But I extended that out further and So I did. I'm unwavering on that. And then their lunch, they call it dinner. Yeah. I went in there saying to myself I didn't want to have – I wanted to come back clean.

1:11:11 them like why are you here do you ever plan on leaving do you ever see yourself going somewhere there was no thought when I was there, This is not... All over the board. Well, what's fascinating to me is that you're saying that they're so happy because if you get Here's what, here, I did this, Joe. and put them in a blender, okay? well I don't know I wouldn't do it that way I definitely wouldn't give it a number okay because

1:15:00 then all of a sudden you'll be happy. That's horseshit it's that's like it's like the tide it comes in and it comes out there's gonna be days where Yeah. seven or below. Right. And that, But it's interesting. It's like, how do you benchmark it? You know what I mean? It kind of fluctuates. and that I don't give a fuck what anybody thinks. That's nonsense. People say that because they

1:18:06 And you think about this energy and you think about this inspiration when you're doing other about everything and they see the negative in everything and they're always whining, The wind's in your face and it's rough. that you're doing your part. And there's a lot of cynicism in these days about inspiration and And you get inspired. Yay. lessons and the lessons are learned through struggle. And I think that there's a lot of people out there that think somehow or another, you're going to get to some place where you're

1:22:11 evolved trying to find food And it's also the great sadness that you see in losers. we live in today. And I think part of that world is because we have been fed this line of horseshit and everybody gets up, I'm like, fuck, man. Oh, hello, sadness, my old friend. you don't respect that, if you don't respect the mechanism of happiness and fulfillment and what you really need to do in order to feel satisfied in life, camaraderie, love, family, friendship, struggle, testing yourself, learning, all those things are imperative.

1:25:17 Absolutely. Absolutely. It's like, fuck, I remember when I struggled with two. all over again and start from scratch there's little improvements where you feel yourself valleys and this again this bullshit idea that we're constantly fed that you should be comfortable He didn't tell me that we're going to do that five times a day. He said, all right, wait 30 seconds, I want you to do it again.

1:28:27 Right now. and i over over the course of an hour or two i did them and that started our journey of like Stay inside. in the blizzard off the ice my mother told me as a kid in long island don't go anywhere near the frozen war if you fall in you benefit of jumping in a frozen lake? And he said to her, there's no medical benefit. She's like, this is what your husband signed up for.

1:31:06 he went everywhere i went he shadowed me for 30 days he went to every business meeting we flew So why'd you do it? And I just felt there were a lot of lessons that could be learned through it. Amazing. They don't have to be radical. He was fat and out of shape and just drinking milkshakes He had no teammates. He was just big. Yes. He's a fucking animal yeah yeah i mean he

1:34:59 Yeah. She was like, what? And I actually went home and then asked him to come, you know, live with me. No, he was active. Wow. and I was just like, just come shake it up, man. You know, you can travel with me. I got some we would run let's say it took us 40 minutes and then we would come back we'd have you know what Okay. You're like sitting in the corner doing his shit.

1:39:26 I sit right in the chair that was the only pass I got Yeah, I mean, you're really getting cooked. Getting poached. I'm at work. He'd be like, we're in we're in wow that sounds so much better than living with a monk the monk thing seems like the My room was about the size of this table. So theirs was smaller? Drone. Yeah. He left me a note on a Post-it.

1:43:08 tell you to do for a month i bet a lot of people would do that i'm sure just charge charge some I mean, Let's do this with my wife right next to me. i just i couldn't do it. Damn. like you were giving that little monologue and you were going through it i was like yes that's i think like you know it's so important to do things that make you feel proud of yourself right you know and that's when i left the monastery you asked me

1:46:31 I'll be like, stop at the first Five Guys Burger you see. And so the two