Better, Not Easier.

Even the way you talk can make things harder for you.

I think there is a tendency for us to sit too easily with safety. I think we spend far too few days having to make hard decisions or having to take risks. I think we have adapted to being soft and comfortable and weak and entitled. And just like the Nike commercial that reminds us that somewhere someone is practicing and will beat us in the game, so it is true in all facets of our lives.

Comfort is its own siren song. To turn up the heat or the AC at the slightest sign we are uncomfortable. To eat at every opportunity. To add caffeine or alcohol or something stronger the moment we start to feel tired or stressed or anxious. To wear a second layer. To hydrate at all times. To “listen to our bodies.”

Our bodies. Our bodies are never going to want to do the work. Our body’s job is to maintain homeostasis, and works very hard to do so. Our body wants to hold on to a little more fat than it needs, wants to avoid holding on to extra muscle, and will rest when at all possible. My favorite line from General George Patton:

“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired… You’ve always got to make the mind take over and keep going.”

Aim for being better. Don’t look for easier.

I think this is the thing that frustrates me most about some people seeking out training advice. They are looking for a shortcut. They waded into the personal confrontation that comes when up against the limit and they thought, “no way can it be this hard.”

“No way can I need to truly go into such a zone to get better.”

“It must be easier for others because of _________.”

This is the beauty of weight training, in a way. You pick a few exercises, do them a few times each week, and add weight when it starts to feel easy. You can so easily see yourself improving that the motivation to go back again is very high. You add and add and add difficulty until you can just barely do a lift. Eventually, you set up at the barbell and there is dread. The lift is going to take so much from you, the effort going to be so huge. In each workout, you not only get physically stronger, you get good at crossing that divide between what’s “easy” and what’s “best.”

We too quickly opt for the easy. “It would be easier if...” comes up in almost every decision process. What if we banished that word? What if instead of looking for the easiest meal / route / relationship, we always tried to hold to the best thing, despite the discomfort? What if we held ourselves to a standard of excellence?

Well, all kinds of cool stuff. But we don’t do it.

I suggest we look for a change in the way we think about things. I truly do know people who make every decision based on what would be the least difficult for themselves. What if, instead, we projected forward and thought, what will have been the best decision looking back a year from now? What decision will I be proud of?

The problem with comfort as a goal is that each time you choose it, there is a little less to be found next time. Your window of acceptable conditions outside, tolerance for hard work, ability to focus, and virtually everything else shrivels with this choice.

What I am advocating for is to seek out moments of excellence, and then try to get better at making them happen.

How do we create moments of excellence?

First, create the opportunity for them. We show up. Can I have a lifetime best climbing day if I am lapping the same four routes at the crag? No way. Can I have the best season of my life by doing the exact same training I did last season? Nope. Can I do something amazing if I am more compliant with my training program, reading schedule, or with my life’s work? You bet.

Second, acknowledge that the discomfort you feel now is money in the bank. The pain from today’s session makes tomorrow’s easier. The anxiety over doing more or further or harder will ease as you spend more time doing it.

Go to the pain. Follow a trail you’ve never been down. Opt for another lap. Go out even though it’s windy.

It’s all opportunity.

Do we accept pain now in exchange for a little pain less later?