CHOOSE YOUR HARD

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
-Soren Kierkegaard

This can be applied in so many different ways- I’m going to choose to look at it through the lens of doing hard things. 
Think about the areas in which you are strong. 

It may be physical and discipline to get after your workouts each day over years and decades; it may be your ability to confront hard conversations and when you learned that was important; it may be your ability to put in the work like smashing through very difficult courses en route to a degree of some sort. 

Strength comes in many forms- but it’s often accompanied by “the hard”. 

Hard things aren’t usually fun to go through- we’re wired to seek safety and comfort in many cases. When you understand that hard things can lead to incredible personal develop they do sort of become fun to think about and seek out- but if they’re truly hard, you’re still likely going to be confronted with decisions to make. 

Can I endure this? How do I get out? Is it worth it? Why do I do this?

Life throws us enough hard situations- illness, loss of loved ones, financial crisis- the list goes on. We don’t seek that stuff out- but we can come out of it with a different perspective on life and what’s important. 

Now let’s talk about about hard things we CAN seek out. 

Physical challenges. Training. Breath work. Meditation. Educating ourselves. 

I own a gym with my wife Lacey, and it may not surprise you that I’m big on the physical training piece- the reason may surprise you though. 
I found at a fairly young age that the discipline to take on physical training and endeavours leads to massive personal growth. 

Belief in yourself. 
That’s why. 

We don’t have a gym so that people can compete, satisfy their own vanity, or get all sweaty and tick a box for the day. 
It’s belief- once you have that, you can take it any direction you want.

Think about your own journey- if you’ve had one- into training. 

This isn’t to sh*t on other training- I believe ANYTHING is better than the couch- but there’s a difference between what we do and walking; doing the elliptical for 30 min; reading a magazine on the bike; or even hitting P90 in your basement. There’s a difference in the act of doing, and a difference in the outcomes. 

It’s hard to get started if it’s not something you’ve built into your life. 
Each day is a decision- do I go and get uncomfortable? or do I stay comfortable?

Once you’re over the hump it’s really no more of a decision than brushing your teeth. 
It takes time to get there, but it’s so worth it. 

The title here- “Choose Your Hard” is really a difference between process and outcomes. 

The process of training, making time for it (yes, you have it), having the discipline to take that first step when you’re 51% not wanting to, and doing so consistently over the course of your life is hard. 
The outcomes are more than what you would expect. Belief; health; joy and happiness; choice; ability; calmness; decreased anxiety and depression. What would you add to the list?

Now on the other hand- the process of avoiding training is easy. Sit back. Eat garbage. Watch way too much Netflix. F*ck it. Right?
The outcomes however are not desirable. Take everything from above and flip it on it’s head. 
This isn’t to say you can’t be happy without working out. That’s not true- but if you simply add that piece to your life, don’t you think it would help?

As someone who has spent a lot of years in this field- I’ve seen people change. I hear the stories. People tell me what life was like, and what it is now- many times in some pretty raw detail. 

CHOOSE YOUR HARD.

As a sidenote- some of you may remember back in March when I ran a solo marathon in place of the cancelled Around The Bay Race. It was right at the start of the pandemic, and my reasoning was “do hard things to get through harder things”. My gym had just been shut down- I wasn’t really trained to run a marathon, nor do I do well with long endurance type exercise. But that was also the whole allure. I documented it all, thinking there would be some great moments and lessons. If you liked this post, you’ll probably enjoy the video. You can check out the video here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lChFDgnukfY&t=515s