Misogi Challenges: How Doing Something Hard Redefines Who You Are

In this episode, we explore the idea of a Misogi—a single, year-defining challenge with a real chance of failure that breaks routine and reshapes identity. Cameo shares her own Misogis, from endurance hiking to recording an album, releasing a book, and shares a possible 2026 Misogi!

You’ll hear:

• what a Misogi is and where the idea comes from

• why the 50% chance of failure matters

• how big goals interrupt autopilot and build identity

• examples from hiking 29029 to recording at London Bridge Studio

• creative and lifestyle Misogi ideas listeners can try

• choosing challenges that require preparation and scare you

• identity change vs. résumé lines

• community invitations and sharing your Misogi

If you’re not following me @cameoelysebraun or @thecameoshowpodcast on Instagram, those are the best places to catch clips and keep up with new episodes. You can also email or text the show anytime.

Chapters

• 1:28 Year-End Mood And A New Word
• 1:46 Discovering The Masogi Concept
• 4:08 Why A Masogi Matters
• 6:19 Personal Masogi Stories: 2022–2025
• 10:41 From Comfort To Growth: Your Turn
• 13:14 Community Invites And Posting Cadence
• 13:47 A Wild 2026 Goal
• 14:36 Final Reflections And Farewell

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:59

Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host Cameo. We are in the final countdown of the year. That weird stretch when you're trying to like finish strong, but also pretend that December calories and commitments don't count. Just me? I don't know. Anyway, welcome to the show. Today we're going to talk about something that cuts through that noise, and it's something called a misogee. A what ghee? You ask? A misogee. And if you've never heard that word before, don't worry. I didn't either until like maybe five or six years ago. And it just will stick with you forever now. You're welcome. I was thinking about it the other day when I was detangling the garland that goes on my main room Christmas tree. And it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to detangle this garland. I didn't have music on, I wasn't listening to a podcast. I wasn't watching a show. I was just detangling this beaded garland and letting myself kind of meditate through that process. Sounds crazy. I know. It's not. It really happened that way. And as I was doing that, I started kind of thinking about what I'm looking forward to in 2026. What do I want some of my goals to be? What direction do I want to go with some things? I have to pause this right now for my own reference and say this is timely because what I'm about to share as one of my goals for 2026, I just got a text message about wee, it's the universe. Anyway. So I was thinking about what I want to look forward to in 2026. And one of the things that I try to do every year, in addition to setting goals, is choose a Masogee. Let me tell you what it is, finally. This word originated from a Japanese concept of ritual purification. And I heard it from my friend and mentor Jesse Itzler. And I also, on my way to a Masogi in 2022, it's getting weird, I know. I'm sorry. Follow along. I was reading, actually, my husband Greg was reading the book Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter, and he was talking about a Masogee and what it is and why it's important while we were on our way to my Masogi. So modern day Jesse Itzler and Michael Easter, if you don't know who they are, please check them out. Read their books. Amazing information, especially when it comes to like physical endurance and health and wellness. The modern version of this Japanese ritual is that you pick a big, uncomfortable challenge and do it once a year. Now here's the thing: it's not like, oh, I want to do a 10-day ab challenge, or, and that's fine if you do, do that. Or like, for me, I want to, you know, run three, 5Ks. I don't know. That's not one of mine, but it just popped into my head. And it may or may not come with a cute sweatshirt. But what makes this Masogee, this big uncomfortable challenge that you do for the year special, is that there's a 50% chance you're gonna fail. It's that big, it's that life-altering. And Jesse also goes a little bit step, a little bit of a step further and says that it's a year-defining event. Whether you complete it and succeed or not, it's something that you can look back on and say, in 2022, I did this. In 2023, I did this. Because these years, as y'all know, are rolling by real fast. And there's so much going on in all of our lives with our kids and our spouses and our relationships and our jobs and our own personal goals that this is kind of an anchor, this big missogee. And here's why it matters, in addition to those things, it interrupts your autopilot. We get so busy in the hustle and bustle of busyness. And a lot of it's because we have to and because we want to. I mean, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I'm just saying that we get on autopilot and we do the same things, and this is a way to interrupt that and focus on something really big and meaningful, really scary, interrupts, you know, what you're used to and how you're used to responding and reacting to things. And here's a big one, kind of in that same vein. It shows you what you're capable of when you're uncomfortable. Intentionally, like on purpose, uncomfortable. So here's a few examples of things that I've done over the last few years that have been my Masogis. In 2022, the Masogi I was talking about that we were on our way to while Greg was reading about it, was called 29029. You essentially hike the equivalent of Mount Everest elevation, not on Mount Everest, but like I went to Utah and you hike up a ski mountain and you ride the gondola down and you do that for 36 hours as the cutoff, and you train for it for months, and you're hiking to 29,000, 29 feet in elevation, and it was like 30 miles. I had never done anything like that. And there was a high probability, 50% chance or more, that I would fail. And I did actually. I did not complete the 29,000 feet in elevation climb. I bonked, that's a story for another time, or maybe I've even already shared it before. But it was a year-defining event. And it was so much more than finishing the elevation hiking and getting the medal. And I did get a cute sweatshirt for that one, a few of them. But it was the people that I met. It was who I met in myself in working toward that goal. It was doing something that interrupted my autopilot. I live in Florida. There's no elevation here. So it was totally different, different style of training, different mentality. Endurance events are their own thing, for sure. That was 2022. In 2023, my husband Greg and I recorded and released an album as a band together. We flew to Seattle twice and recorded in an iconic studio, London Bridge Studio, where Pearl Jam 10 and Temple of the Dog, Chris Cornell, recorded and we did big songs by both of those bands. There was a 50% chance I might fail and or have a panic attack. But that trip was very rich for me because it pushed me outside of my comfort zone as it pertains to what I want to do with music and my music goals and kind of brought me back home to myself and showed me what I'm capable of. 2024, gosh. This was kind of an impromptu one, but we hiked a 14er. There's an episode about that. A 14er is a 14,000-foot mountain in Colorado or anywhere, but this one was in Colorado. There's a lot of Colorado 14ers, and um that was challenging. Kind of same, kind of the same as the Mount Everest idea, except this one we did within 24 hours of landing from Florida to Denver and without any training. So that was definitely taking us out of autopilot. And this year in 2025, I released my book, The Reset Button, that I've been working on for years, and that was definitely a disruptor emotionally. A 50% chance of failure, meaning like that I may not even emotionally be able to release it, but I did. And it's definitely been a year-defining moment for me, a life-defining moment for me. And in addition, this year I also had the opportunity to sing in a stadium the national anthem for a large sporting event, Supercross. And I'm grateful for everyone in my journey that has helped me either achieve or work toward achieving those goals. Now, I don't tell you all that so that you know my life story. I am just illustrating that those are some of the things that I've done to get me out of my comfort zone. We don't know our limits. We just know where we like to be without too much pain. This is like putting yourself in a painful situation, whether that be physical, emotionally, not like in danger, but you know what I mean. On purpose, on purpose, pain or discomfort to see how far you can stretch yourself because stretching equals growth. So I want you to think about Masogis for yourself. I have a couple for next year. I'm gonna share those with you at the end of the episode. I think they're a little bit wild, so stay tuned. But back to you. That's what this is really about. Adopting a Masogi. It needs to scare you a little bit. Do something that like you might not be able to actually do. Do something that scares you a little bit. Here's another example. Maybe you decide to stop drinking for 30 days. There's a 50% chance or more that you might fail that. So thought-provoking. Maybe you decide that all year next year, you are going to put your phone down beginning at 8 o'clock at night. Turn it off. That's scary, right? That's scary for all of I don't know if I can do that as a Masogi every single day. My goodness. Your defining event is that in 2026 I shut my phone off at 8 p.m. Whatever. Just ideas. You need to not be able to know for sure that you can do it. Has to scare you. You're not sure you can do it. You need to be able to prepare for it mentally and physically a little bit. Not impulsive. So maybe the 14er wasn't a great example, but it was one of my year-defining moments in 2024. But something you can prepare for, something you work toward, building character, getting outside of your comfort zone, and developing strength, stretching yourself so that you learn more about yourself. The other thing is that it's something that will change your identity, not your resume. So maybe the 14er is more of like a resume thing. Oh, we did that. Because the other things that I referenced as Masogis, true Misogis, weren't really about the metal, like when I didn't do the Everest challenge completely. It was about who I became along the way, who I had to become to get there in the first place. It's the perfect time of year to do this because it's the end of the year and we're doing a lot of reflection. There's a lot of chaos during the holidays and emotional overload, whether we want to admit it or not. Even if we manage it well, it's still there. It's pretty common to get lost in everyone else's needs because we're thinking about other people and that's not a negative thing, but just more so maybe than the norm because we're going here and doing this and buying these things. This is your chance, the end of the year, to kind of look forward into the next year and think: what's one thing I can do just for me but will make me better for everyone that I love? What's the thing gonna be that's gonna be scary and uncomfortable, but make me better, help me grow, push my limits and learn what they are, and how am I gonna get there? So I want to know, after you give it some thought, I want to know what are your ideas for your Masogis. Maybe I'll even do something on social media. So if you're not following me at Cameo Elise Braun on Instagram or at the Cameo Show Podcast on Instagram, best places to catch clips and catch me. Uh, you can also email or text the show. We have new episodes every Wednesday, which may or may not be something that is part of one of my plans for next year, but that's to be determined if we make that change. Um, but for now, make sure you tune back in. Now, here's the thing I was gonna share that I wasn't sure I was gonna share from the beginning and about my Masogis for next year. I don't know yet, but one of my Masogis for next year that definitely scares me, that definitely disrupts me, that definitely takes preparation, is totally outside of my comfort zone, that I have a 50% more or more chance of failing is signing up for a fight. Now I am going to be 43 years old in 2026, and I've been training martial arts for a few years. I like to think my skill set is pretty high. So we'll see. But I want to know about yours. I want to know what you think about this concept of Masogi versus just goals, like how that resonates for you, and uh what you're dreaming about, what you're scared of. Because it, you know, because they're scary. Be vulnerable with yourself. Really go for it, really think about it. The biggest thing about a Masogi is that it's scary and uncomfortable for a reason because a lot of times it proves to you that you've always had what you needed inside. You just haven't ever gotten yourself to the limit of understanding that. And so, with that, I wish you the best for this holiday season. Maybe your Masogi is just showing up for family dinner, just kidding. We all love our family, we all love the holiday season and the challenges it can bring. And on that note, please join us again. Until next time.