We hate discomfort. Well, most of us. It’s natural to choose a less difficult option, the path of least resistance or the thing that gets us satisfaction sooner, but I’m going to challenge you to find the areas in your life where that’s become the norm and push back.
Comfort surrounds us. The days of hunting and gathering in order to survive have been long gone for most for quite some time. Machines perform the most hard labor while most of us sit at desks from 8 to 4 with coffee and snacks while watching the minutes tick by. Heck, even conversations are easier since we can stick earbuds in our ears and listen to a podcast, music or whatever we desire. No need to talk to people. No need to ever be uncomfortable…until it’s unavoidable.
Use it or lose it…that’s what they say. Who are they? I have no idea, but they’re always saying stuff. Regardless of who said it, it’s true. You need to stress yourself when it comes to your health and fitness. It takes energy to maintain your body. When you aren’t using things like muscles, bones or your brains, your body likes efficiency and will not put the same amount of effort into maintaining those things. Muscles waste away, bones demineralize and it’s much the same for your brain and cognition. Choose the “easy path” for long enough and doing the basic things in life becomes more and more difficult sooner and sooner.
When you physically stress your body through exercise or hard work, you’re telling your body, I need you! I need you to be stronger. I need you to be faster. I need you to be able to do this work for longer. At the very least, don’t lose what we’ve already built. When you choose the easy path it’s like letting your foot off the accelerator of your car. You’ll keep moving for a while, but you’ll continue to lose speed and momentum until, eventually, you stop likely never arriving at your destination.
When you continue to choose to do the hard things in life, you build confidence and the capability to tackle other obstacles in your life. When you choose to do hard things in life, most other things in your life seem easier. When you overcome obstacles in your life, the bigger obstacles start to look smaller and less intimidating.
Stress breeds adaptation. Adaptation leads to growth. If you want to be strong, you have to go through some sh*t. Sometimes, that isn’t voluntary, but if your life is pretty cushy, you’re going to have to go out of your way once in a while and do some hard stuff.
I love the verse from Proverbs: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Well, have you ever been in a foundry or blacksmith shop? Iron is forged at 2500 degrees. A blacksmith’s fire burns at about 3000-4000 degrees. That’s hot, baby! Those are some serious temps and some serious forces as iron slams on iron. It’s an intense process. Some of the strongest materials we know undergo some of the most intense environments we can create. I think that doing hard things and challenging yourself to do better and to be better is a lot like sharpening iron.
You’re going to be uncomfortable and that’s ok. It reminds you you’re still alive and gives you reason and purpose to be alive as well. Choose to do hard things
P.S. CrossFit is hard! Do that!
#HoldTheStandard, friends,
Coach Derek
