Welcome back, and welcome to the third blog in our four-part blog series on finding, and keeping, motivation. Today’s blog topic is one of my favorites, both for myself and for my athletes.
Choose your hard.
Many of you have probably heard a similar sentiment before, but I love the message behind this action item. Choosing your hard is a way of acknowledging that making a change, and also not making a change, are both choices that come with difficulty. Furthermore, and what I love the most about this particular action item, is that it removes the excuse that you cannot do something because it would be too difficult.
So let’s put this into some practical perspective by using some examples. Waking up at 5 am to go to the gym is hard. Going through your day feeling guilty that you skipped your workout is hard. Choose your hard. Budgeting your money is hard. Being in debt is hard. Choose your hard. Sticking to a nutrition program is hard. Feeling like you hate the way you look is hard. Choose your hard.
Choosing your hard will also change the perspective on what we are achieving, and on what others around us have achieved. All of a sudden, “I’d kill to look like him” becomes the acknowledgment that, “he chooses to fight his cravings and never skips a workout in order to achieve killer results.” Similarly, “She’s always showing off with expensive shoes and lavish vacations” becomes a recognition that, “she’s going through the tedium of working long hours, budgeting, and financial planning because she’s choosing to excel with her finances.”
Now, I know what some of you are thinking, and I get it. This perspective is not to say there aren’t extreme circumstances. It is not to say that some people don’t get lucky sometimes and that others don’t fall on hard luck sometimes. But this is the exception, not the rule, and more importantly this kind of thinking does nothing to help us on the path toward our goals.
So how will you choose your hard? Will you commit to seeing your therapist once per week, or will you continue to hold on to old anger or guilt? Will you weigh and measure your food, or will you continue to feel frustrated with your body? Will you hit those heavy back squats, or will you stay plateaued?
Choose your hard.