The Property Unleashed Podcast

How A 75-Hard Challenge Rewired My Habits And Business Discipline

• Mark Fitzgerald • Episode 356

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We break down why doing 75 Hard again changed more than fitness, and how rigid rules built discipline that improved health, planning, and property results. The focus shifts from workouts to integrity, consistency, and turning inconvenience into a competitive edge.

• what 75 Hard requires and why the rules matter
• two daily workouts with smart scheduling and injury avoidance
• water, diet, and intermittent fasting strategies for real life
• reading for mindset and better decisions
• travel hurdles and how planning beats chaos
• mental toughness that transfers to property investing
• Live Hard phases and the added elements of cold showers, visualization, and daily critical tasks
• honesty, near misses, and finishing without cheating yourself
• realistic expectations in property and avoiding highlight‑reel thinking
• building habits that last beyond 75 days

Join the Property Unleashed Education to Action community with a full vault of trainings and coaching. There’ll be a link somewhere here. If you are going to do 75 Hard, then reach out to me, let me know that. I’ll support you on this.


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Why Do 75 Hard Again

SPEAKER_00

Why did I do 75 Hard Again? Let's find out. Hello and welcome to the Property Unleashed podcast with me, your host, Mark Fitzgerald. It's great to have you joining me here today. So in this episode today, I really wanted to just focus on and talk about the challenge. I suppose it's a challenge. 75 Hard Challenge, if you like. It can be called all sorts of different things, but it really is a challenge. And there's five very good reasons why I've took up this challenge for the second time. Now I do believe it was back in about 2021 I did 75 Hard for the first time. I will explain to you what that's about, but it's one of my early episodes, actually, where I talked about it then. And for very different reasons, I decided to do it again. Back then, it was to sort of build up mental toughness. A lot of people think that the 75 hard challenge is all about fitness, it's all about health and everything. But it's so much more than that. By doing the actions and taking the daily steps that you need to take, you will, of course, get fitter. You will lose weight as long as you're sticking to the five elements of 75 hard that you have to. So let me just first of all, for people that don't have a clue what this is and are thinking, what's he on about? The man's gone mad. Let me just explain to you what it is. So 75 hard is a challenge over 75 days. The challenge itself is to drink a gallon of water. So just under four liters of water, actually, but I was doing a little bit over four liters of water every day. Every day. Okay, all of this has to be done each and every day without fail. So the first one is drink a gallon of water. Okay. I'll also tell you how I did these things as well. But you've got the water, you have to read 10 pages of a self-development book every day, which is an easy one for me because I've got into that habit probably from doing 75 Hard the first time. But it can't just be any fictional stuff, it has to be, you know, business, mindset, something that's going to really teach you something and help you move forward and make you a better person at the end of the day in your life. So that's the second part. The next part is you have to do two 45-minute workouts every day. One of those has to be outside. Okay. So that can be a real challenge in itself. Obviously, two 45-minute workouts is not an easy thing to do, but this isn't supposed to be easy. This is called 75 hard, not 75 easy. So you have to make sure that you're doing that. Now, I'll go into as I say, I'll go into more details in a minute. So we've got the workouts in there. You have to then have a strict diet. So you have to have a diet that realistically is good for you. You cannot have any junk food, you cannot have any sweets, you cannot have any of those sort of treats or anything like that. If you if you have an MM or a Skittle, as they say in America, or you have a Smarty over here, a minstrel, Malteser, keep going. I love chocolate. You can't have any of that. If you have one chocolate chip from a chocolate chip cookie, you fail. So you have to have a very, very strict diet and no alcohol, not a drop. You cannot have a little taster, you cannot have anything. One glass, oh, I just have one glass. No, no, no, you can't have any of that for 75 days. Now, when I speak to people about this, a lot of them are like, Oh, I could do most of those. I couldn't do the no drinking, couldn't do the no drinking, and that's fine. And some people say, Well, I couldn't go without you know having a having a cheat meal every now and again, that's what life's all about. And again, that's fine. What and how other people think about this is all down to them. I truly believe that if you cannot last 75 days without having an alcoholic beverage or drinking something that really could be classed as a cheat meal, in the sense of you know, full fat Coke or anything, you can have Pepsi Max calorie-free. You can't drink them all day long because you've still got to get that water down you, but you can have a can of Pepsi Max if you want, or size Coke Zero or something like that, if you wanted to have a little treat in sense, but better if you don't, but you don't fail if you do those things, okay? Now, the only person that is actually really ever going to benefit from this is the person that will commit to it and will commit 100% to it. Because if you get any of those five elements wrong, or you don't do any of those five elements on one of the days, you have to start again. You have to go all the way back to day one. Now, it can sound a bit extreme, but I like a little bit of extreme. I believe we should all have a little bit of extremeness in our lives, if that is a word, to really help us move forward. Because you've got to push yourself and you also need to be out there challenging yourself. Now, some people said to me, I'm gonna do my own version of this, or I'm gonna do 75 easy. Well, what's the point? What is the actual point in that if you're not gonna challenge yourself? Because I tell you what, a lot of those disciplines that you incorporate and do over the 75 days, you will keep doing afterwards. They will become a habit, they will become a discipline to you. So, how did I manage to do all of this? Well, the first time that I did 75 Hard back in 2021, we were still sort of in and out of lockdowns and things and restrictions. So, for me, it probably felt a little bit easier because you know it we were we were at home more and it just made life a little bit easier. This one here, I had to go to the world championships, the amateur kickboxing world championships with my son for four days. We had to stay over in Wales, and I still needed to get my workouts in, I still need to make sure I stayed on a strict diet, I still need to make sure that I got all of the elements done, the water and everything, which was a challenge when I had to drive to Wales from where I am. It's about a four-hour journey. So you you have a few stops on the way, if I'm quite honest with you. Or as I did, was let's get up early, let's get down there, and then I can start drinking and chugging away. Because the last thing that you want to be doing is trying to drink a liter of water a couple of hours before you go to bed because you just know that you're gonna have a bad night, you're gonna be up and down like a yo-yo. So, how did I incorporate and what did I do to help myself with this? Well, as I say, it's all about building in those daily disciplines. So, for me, the first thing I do when I get up is I drink a couple of pints of water, which nearly gives me a liter's worth of water anyway. Now, there's some massive health benefits from doing that sort of thing as well. So, if nothing else, when you get out of bed, the first thing you should do, so to speak, is drink, is drink some water and try and get a liter down you in the first hour if you can, because it gives your body the nourishment it needs, you know, the uh hydration it needs to set you up for the day and that your brain needs as well, because of course you're dehydrated most of the times when you wake up. So I was trying to get basically a couple of pints of water down me before I actually then went out and did my first workout. Now, your workouts, when we say workouts, they can be lifting weights, they can be running, they can be hiking, they can be whatever. Gets your heart rate up and gets you out of breath, gets you sweating, so to speak, and gets you hot so that you can push yourself there. Because you can't go in the gym twice a day pumping iron. Well, some people can, but I certainly can pump iron and expect to be able to do that for 75 days without injuring yourself. So we have to be sensible here, and we have to also do what's right for our bodies and right for us. So for me, I get out and I go for a walk very early in the morning, anyway. But I go for a walk in such a manner that it is a bit of a hike. You know, I'm really sort of power walking, going along, take the dog with me and everything. We go out over the hills and stuff. So I have a 45-minute uh track, if you like. Well, I tried to do it for 50 minutes to make sure that I didn't, because you get quicker. Obviously, the more you do this, the stronger you get, the quicker you get as well. But that's in all elements. So it's raining, it's snowing, it's all of those great things that you can really, really enjoy. But you get yourself out. That's the first workout done. Now your second workout cannot be back to back. You have to have a couple of hours in between them. So park that for a minute. That one's done. Happy days. I would then come back again, drink some more water, try and get another liter if I can down me, chug it, and then I know I've only got two liters pretty much to do for the rest of the day, which is nice and easy. I try and make sure that I had the three liters done by about 12 o'clock, one o'clock, and then a liter left for the rest of the day, which is nice and easy. And as long as you can sort of continue with that sort of habit, you'll be alright with that. The diet itself, so the foods, food elements wasn't really a massive problem for me. Once I set, excuse me, once I set my mind to something, I'm pretty good at just sticking with it and staying on course with that as well. So it was a quick case of having a balanced diet of proteins, of vegetables and things. Now I'm quite a fussy eater, it has to be said. Uh I wish I wasn't, but I am. If you can pretty much eat anything health-wise, then you'll do really, really well on this. But I'm a bit of a fussy person. So some of the but I can juice things and I can drink things. So some of the fruits and stuff that I needed to have, I was just juicing together to help me. And also I was intermittent fasting this time around as well. Now I lost about two stone in weight, or just under two stone in weight over that time. So that's good. You know, I'm really happy about that, and I'll do my best now to maintain the weight that I am because I feel very fit and healthy for it as well. And and it's great to know that if you do this challenge and you just wanted to, you know, lose a bit of weight, feel great in yourself and everything because you're eating the right foods, you're flushing out your system, you're detoxing everything. Set yourself this challenge to go and do this. Now, I did 75 hard in, as I say, 2021. And I have done, you know, 20, 30 days of 75 hards over the last few years as well. I've sort of started it and stopped it and not really fully committed to it. So people could say, well, have you ever failed? Well, I've never really, when I say I'm gonna do 75 days, I pretty much do 75 days and I make sure that it happens. But I do also just think, oh, I'm just gonna do 75 hard for the next couple of weeks because I've got something coming up. So I sort of incorporate those elements on a day-to-day basis now, anyway, which is great. But the main thing about this, and as I say, a lot of people say, well, it's fitness, it's all about fitness, it's a fitness challenge. There is an element of fitness in there, but the main thing about it is it's inconvenient. That is massively, massively the point. It's inconvenient, and it means that you have to plan your days out or you get caught out. Now, as property investors and business owners, it is vital, vital to be successful that we have a plan, we have a mission, we have tasks, and we take action on those tasks. And what 75 Hard will help you with is being able to plan out your days, your weeks, to understand that conditions are never going to be perfect. Okay, it's never gonna be all all of all sunshine and roses all of the time. We have to be able to roll with the punches, we have to be able to adapt, but we have to make sure that the critical tasks that need doing get done, and that is a discipline that you need to build up. So the five elements of this that I've really taken away from doing it and really committing to it, okay, over the well, I started mine in September and finished in November last year, and I plan on doing what is called the Live Hard program, which is the year-long program this this year. Well, basically the calendar year from September 2025 to September 2026, which involves some other phases, which I'll I'll just cover briefly now. Why not? So phase one is basically 75 hard again, but you have three other elements there. You have to take a cold shower, five-minute cold shower each and every day. You have to do five critical tasks each and every day. So you've got your five tasks that you have to do on 75 hard, but you also have to have five tasks that will move you forward in your life, and will actually really, really help you do that. And then you have to you have to spend 10 minutes visualizing the future and everything and giving yourself some thinking time. So that's phase one. Phase two, and that only lasts for 30 days, phase one. But if you fail phase one, you have to start again at the beginning of phase one, not at the boot count, which is 75 hard. Phase two is the very much the same as 75 hard, but it's just 30 days. But you have to have left phase one 30 days before you can do phase two, and phase three has a few other elements in it as well. But basically, fundamentally, that's another 30-day challenge, but that has to finish on the first day that you started 75 hard. And phase three again has the five critical tasks that you have in 75 hard, but it also has that you have to do a random act of kindness every day. So you have to, you know, you could go out and litter pick, you could go out and pay for somebody's coffee, you've got to do something that really pushes you out of your own way to go and help somebody else. You have to speak to a stranger and have a conversation with somebody each and every day as well, which is great for getting you out there, particularly when it comes to business, because a lot of the times some people are introverted, they struggle to get those conversations going. But if you're gonna go out there and just make somebody feel good about themselves and have those conversations, then that's really, really good. And I think you've got to get it back in that shower as well and get those cold showers going again as well. I'll have to double check that. I might have missed something there. So if you are gonna do this, then just check out Andy Fasella, who came up with this idea. This is his concept, or go onto Instagram and just hashtag 75 hard challenge or 75 hard or live hard, and you'll be able to get all the rules and roles and everything there. Now, nobody checks in with you while you're doing this, so it is down to you to be honest with yourself. And there's no point in cheating or lying because I'll tell you what, if you manage to do this for 75 days, committing to it, and you haven't cheated, i.e., you haven't messed up, you haven't forgotten to do something, you haven't got in got into bed and thought, I haven't done that second workout, I haven't read my 10 pages, I'll read them in the morning, I'll read 20 pages tomorrow. Get out of bed and read those 10 pages because basically a day is classed until you go to sleep the following night. So if it's one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning, if you haven't gone to bed, physically gone to sleep, you can still get out there and you can still do those challenges. I've had friends of mine that have forgot to do the water and had to do that late at night. I've had people that have gone out late at night to do their last workout or the second workout, should I say. You've got to make sure that you're committed to it and you don't forget to do anything. And that over 75 days is very difficult. A lot of people go on a diet but give themselves a cheat day, and normally that's within a couple of weeks of starting it. None of that with this. So for me, the five elements that have really helped me, obviously, my health. It's helped my health. I want to be the fittest I've ever been, and that is one of my missions, particularly this year. It builds up healthy habits. I've got pretty good habits anyway, but I am a creature of habit. So being able to build in the right habits at the right time has really, really helped me. And I would highly recommend that people try this. It gives you mental toughness. You will find that when you start to do workouts and when you start to get it, you know, either in the gym or I get on my Peloton or I go for my hikes and things, I push myself a bit further, a bit faster. I want to be uh, you know, a personal best. Can't do it every day. But I do find that sometimes when I say to myself, I can't be bothered with that, I'm only gonna walk this far today because I'm not on the challenge anymore, that I find myself saying, No, no, no, we are gonna do this. Pull your socks up, son, and get on with it. So there's that mental toughness that pushes you forward. When I'm getting out there and doing property deals and I'm talking to people and I'm trying to get deals over the line, I don't take no for an answer, and I get stuck in and I try and help people genuinely try and help people and things, and it builds up that toughness, that resilience that you need when you're going to be successful in what you're trying to do as well. And I just love it. I like I say, it's pushing myself and it's having those disciplines as well, those daily disciplines to get up, get out there, and make things happen for you. And that is why I've done 75 Hard, I'd say for the second time properly, because this is the time when I committed to it. I told everybody I was doing it and I got stuck in. Did I have some near misses along the way? Was it easy? No, definitely wasn't easy. There's times where people are sat around and they're enjoying themselves, or there's times where people are eating very nice things. I'm a chocolate monster, me. Don't really like sweets and stuff, but I do love a good bar of chocolate or something like that. So, you know, it was, but I didn't miss it. What you will find is by the time you get to the end of 75 days, you're almost scared to have a cheat meal or or have I still haven't had an alcoholic drink since August 2025. I was the last alcoholic beverage I had, and we're in January 2026 now. But we are going out this weekend, and I probably will have one there. But that's not because I'm saying that I'm never gonna drink again or anything like that, but I will drink when I as and when I want to, rather than just thinking I need to have one each and every day, which I don't really, anyway. I very rarely drink. When I do have a drink, I like to have a drink, but that's about it. So, what I would say to people, if you're saying, Well, I need a drink, I can't have a drink, I can't settle without a drink, can't sleep without a drink, you're addicted to drinking alcohol. Okay, face the facts. You might not be an alcoholic, and I'm not saying you are, but alcohol or that type of drink has a power over you now. Control that and don't let anything have a power over you. So if you say to yourself, I cannot eat healthily and not drink alcohol for 75 days, something's got a power over you. Okay, and that's no good. You need to be in control, you need to have the power yourself. And trust me, alcohol is poison. I I really actually do believe that if you know alcohol came out now, that they would try and ban it. Okay, they did try and ban it years ago, didn't they? But anyway, get off your high horse, Mark. People like a drink. I like a drink. I'm not saying that. Don't ban it, don't ban it, because it is nice to have a have a drink every now and again. But what I'm saying is don't let anything have a power over you. You control your destiny, you control what it is that you want to achieve and that you want to do, and make sure it stays that way. I will now do 75 hard at least a boot camp, if nothing else, each and every year to keep myself in check and to keep myself fit and healthy. The next boot camps, I've got different phases that I'm gonna be going through. Obviously, phase one, two, and three. We will be doing those over the course of this year and making sure that when I get to the end of the live hard program, that's 2027 I'm ready to do 75 hard again. Might not do the live hard program, but I'm definitely going to do 75 hard and keep these healthy habits that we've built and instant installed going. Because, as we all know, habits only last so long before everything starts to fade off, and we have to commit to things and stay. Stick to things to see results. And this is why I wanted to talk about this here on a property investing podcast, because you've got to do the same. You've got to stick to these things that you set out to do. And you've got to make sure that you commit to them and that you will not stop until you achieve your goals. And it's going to be hard, it's going to be difficult. There's going to be setbacks, but that is life. That is business. That is what it's all about. Okay. It's not easy. It's not smooth sailing for anybody. And anybody that's giving you that Instagram lifestyle that says it's all right here. I bought this property for this. I spent five pounds on it and I've made 36 grand and I've quit my job. Yes, they may very well have done that. Not a problem whatsoever. It can be done. But there will be challenges. There will be things that have upset them along the way. And we've just made to make sure that we're realistic in our expectations of what we're doing. There's lots of great property strategies out there that you can use. If you need any help with that, come and visit the Property Unleashed Education to Action community that has a full vault of property investing trainings that can help and support you in whatever it is that you're trying to achieve, as well as the coaching sessions from myself and my power team of experts to really supercharge your results. It's the most cost-effective property investing training that you will find out there. And I believe it's some of the best stuff as well. So why not dip into that and have a little look? There'll be a link somewhere here. But get yourselves out there, set yourself some targets, start to build those daily disciplines in, start to build in those daily habits. If you are going to do 75 hard, then reach out to me, let me know that. I'll support you on this. If you've already done it and you know how it's helped you, or maybe you've started and you failed, don't worry about it. Just pull yourself together and get stuck in again. Okay, have another go. It's not gonna hurt you. But don't lie, don't cheat the system. If you do fail, even if you get to day 74 and you've forgotten to do something or something's just not happened for you, or it's that party. Uh, it's only day 74. I I can give myself realistically, you'll you will know. Okay, in your own mind, you will know that you did not achieve this. You need to get to the end because I tell you what, and I promise you this as well if you do it and you stick to it and you achieve it, you will be a different person at the end of it. Okay, I'm not gonna spoil anything for you there, but something will click and something will change in you that will change for the better. And I'll leave you on that note. So thank you for joining me here, and I look forward to you joining me in the next episode very soon. Take care and bye for now.