Choosing Battles That Will Win You the War

Indulging in difficult activities on a daily basis is not the most appealing way to spend one’s day. But choosing to live the easy life may be to your detriment. Not long ago, I would wake up at my leisure, scroll Tik Tok for 30 minutes, and start my day knowing I was mentally unprepared to endure any expected or unexpected hardships. My new morning routine starts with a made bed, follows with 20 pages of reading, and finishes with a physically brutal workout. As you would imagine, this is not always easy. But that’s the point. I am much happier at the end of each morning, but why? It turns out it’s actually the added challenges that give me purpose and fulfillment in my life. In the book The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter, he mentions “we are living progressively sheltered, sterile, temperature-controlled, overfed, under challenged, safety-netted lives.” You would think that as our world got more luxurious, people would be more satisfied. The exact opposite is true. Daily comforts and conveniences are actually the driving factor in the dissatisfaction of humans. Every time we receive a new comfort, we expect one that is better. The end result is wasted time, unhappiness, and a lack of truly LIVING.

You are Wasting Time . . . Start Now

In the wise words of Ryan Holiday, “The thing to start with is the hard part, the part you want to do the least. Not begrudgingly, but promptly and enthusiastically, with a body that’s been trained for hard work and a mind that’s sharp and focused.” Every day should be approached with some form of voluntary challenge. Nobody has ever started dieting because it is an easy thing to do. The reason someone starts a diet is because they are unhappy for blanketing themselves with comfort. Note that they are shifting to a harder path to find happiness. The problem with self-induced challenges is they are hard to start. Therefore, we constantly promise ourselves that we will start sometime in the future, and it turns out this is not much of a promise at all, it’s meaningless. That is when you must think about how taking immediate action is a tremendous benefit in the long run. I used to find my will power taken away in the face of choosing difficult action, or easy action that leads to instant dopamine hits. The latter is what most of choose. Given the convenience of comforts, they seem near impossible to avoid. It is effortless to turn down your thermostat, check your phone, or go into the pantry for a few snacks. Since the dawn of our species, Homo Sapiens worked hard to get food, had to deal with thermogenic pressures relative to the weather, and could not look at a GPS to get somewhere. The problem with this is the fact that we are still programmed this way, but because of innovation, we can seek out the convenient way of attaining comfort.

Make Suffering Your Friend

There is something enticing about a person with a warrior mentality. Everyone looks up to David Goggins and Jocko Willink because there is something fascinating about a person that has the mental capacity to keep going no matter the circumstance. After spending some time reading and listening to the stories of these two, I see why people admire them and aspire to be like them. Goggins and Willink have mastered two things. One is discipline. Two is getting uncomfortable. It seems crazy that someone could have that level of commitment, but in reality, it is not. When you want to find your greatest potential, it means you will be pushing to your absolute limit and beyond. This is the art of suffering. It does not feel good in the moment, but if you never enter the pain cave, you are left with a bundle of untapped potential. The good times come easy. So get good at mastering the bad times too. It is there you will find that making it through the suffering only makes the good times even better.

Changes I Have Made

Growing up I watched my Dad relentlessly insist on working out even if the situation was not ideal. He used to drive an hour to a Crossfit gym before he got to work at 8AM, work an entire day, and still make time to get us ready for school the next day. I remember one day he woke up at 4:00AM and ran across the Seaside Heights bridge and back from our house, around 14 miles, and he was not a runner. As a 12 year old kid, I thought he was nuts. Now, as a 21 year old adult, I understand it completely. My first few tries of getting into the gym were epic failures. A few weeks of hitting it hard, and then a few months before I put my hand on a dumbbell again. After two years of on and off training, I found a rhythm. I was getting better in all aspects of life, not just physically. It took me a while to realize it is because I was toughening the mind, which would increase my cognitive abilities for extracurricular challenges. Fast forward two more years, and I am obsessed with this process. In addition to a tough workout, I do a daily cold plunge in 40 degree water, 20 minutes in the sauna at 210 degrees, surf in the middle of the winter, read 40 pages per day, and found a way to advance my skillset further toward my career path. Five years ago I would have never even considered any of these challenges. I was foolish. This is the life I now choose. Getting too comfortable scares me. It may be cliché but life really is short, don’t let it slip away knowing you had more to give. The great David Goggins says, “The whole point of the twenty-four-hour mission is to keep up a championship pace, not for a season or a year, but for your entire life!”

Weekly Book/Podcast Recommendations

• Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holiday

• Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

• The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter

Hope you guys all have a fantastic start to the new year!

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