Do Hard Sh**
It's good for you
Are you resistant to doing hard things? It’s okay we all are.
Our body’s natural tendency is to take the path of least resistance. To seek comfort and safety and avoid potential dangers and risks. To some degree, it’s evolutionarily engrained in us.
While this evolutionary trait used to provide us benefit when our ancestors had to conserve energy because of a lack of food supply and when the world around was much less tamed and far more dangerous….at least as far as things trying to eat you goes.
The problem is that in modern life, this tendency to seek comfort and avoid trials and tribulations can come in the form of responding to hunger and cravings by eating whatever is in sight. It can come in the form of wanting to stop when our legs burn on a run or when our muscles are on fire during a workout. It can come when that alarm goes off in the morning and we face that critical moment where we want to hit that snooze button and end our 4-day gym streak.
This reluctance to experience difficult things can even come in the form of frustration and procrastination when we hit the messy middle of a project at work. It can come in the form of giving in to the whims of your children because you are too tired to invest in teaching a lesson (I’ve been there already in my early days of parenting). It can even come in the form of the inability to deal with boredom being circumvented by reaching for your cell phone anytime you experience any dead time in your life….including when you’re on the toilet (if you’re reading this on the toilet though I approve).
But then there are people who seem to rise to the occasion anytime they are faced with a challenge. The people who work out every day, stick to their nutrition plans for decades, run successful businesses while juggling family life, and respond to adversity seemingly with ease. What makes these people different?
I think the most successful people in life are well-trained in doing hard shit. They have continuously flexed their muscles that fight resistance and have made them stronger over time so that when faced with difficult challenges like an injury, a sickness, a vacation, a death in the family, or a loss of a job, they are able to more easily adjust and respond is a more positive fashion. Or at the very least, not be crippled by the stress. In some ways, when adversity hits these people, it’s like riding a bike.
You can get there too. So can I. And I am actively trying to get there every day.
If you listened to the episode of the Thinking Health Podcast featuring Dr. Gustin, we talked about how we can train ourselves to be able to do difficult things by working out, cold plunging, sitting in the sauna, reading challenging books, learning new skills, and the many other things we can do to push ourselves.
We both believe that through constantly challenging ourselves, we can develop a type of resiliency and strength that allows us to better handle the real-life challenges that present themselves every day like parenting, work, sticking with our diet plan, and even not flipping off the dude that cut you off in traffic on the way to work.
The beautiful thing about the human body is that as we expose it to stress, it adapts and gets stronger. Like iron sharpens iron, so can you sharpen the tools that help you navigate this crazy messy world.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Irvin
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