The Best Part is the Difficulty

There are many great things about the choice to become strong. But the best part, the absolute BEST part is that it's difficult. That sometimes it feels nearly impossible. Because it is literally impossible to grow without challenge, without adversity, without pain and struggle.

Nothing handed to you makes you grow. It may help you. It may give you an advantage. But it does not, CANNOT make you grow. Even if we have the path to growth spelled out for us, we still have to DO it. We still have to face those challenges and come out better than we were when we started.

Because growth only happens when we force ourselves outside of our comfort zone. When you work out, you force your muscles outside of that comfort zone. You lift heavy weight, you sprint, you push your body. Your muscles fibers tear and rebuild, and that makes you stronger. You have forced your body outside of its resting state, and it tears parts of itself to make it happen, then comes back stronger for the next challenge.

This is what you have to do in every area of life in which you want to grow strong. If you want to meet new people, you need to make yourself go out there and find them. No one's going to come knocking at your door asking to be your friend or lover. If you want that dream career, you have to push yourself to be at the top of your craft, among the best and brightest in your field, and THEN you have to get out there and make sure people know you are. If you want to give up a bad habit, an addiction, a fixation, you have to look that thing in the face and say "I don't need you. You don't own me. I am not a slave to you."

And I am here today to tell you that the absolute BEST part about all of these things is that they are HARD. That other people give up. That other people quit. That other people leave the gym early, or don't go at all. That other people stay home and don't put themselves out there. That other people stay at that dead end job, or never even follow their passions to begin with. That other people have that "last cigarette" every day.

The best part, the absolute BEST PART of these challenges is that by being difficult, they force you to become the person you want to be, that you NEED to be to have the life you know you deserve, to become your best self. Because others run the other way. Others avoid the challenge.

By choosing to not only face it but run TOWARDS it, you train your mind to seek out the adversity that makes you stronger. You become hungry for the next challenge. You stop being complacent and satisfied with the way things are. You complete the objective, you crush the challenge, you stop just long enough to grow from it, and then you eagerly seek the next. Once you make this a way of life, you have an unlimited potential for strength.

That's why the best part is the difficulty. Because without it, the growth wouldn't be possible. Take a look at your life, at the areas you want to grow stronger in. Are you challenging yourself? Are you staying hungry for the growth you know you need? If not, ask yourself why. If the answer is "because it's hard," then this is your call to arms. Stop avoiding the difficult. Embrace it. Revel in it. Then obliterate it and bask in the growth that follows. Develop an addiction, an obsession, with finding the next challenge to overcome. Build a hunger for growth and strength, and you will never lack for opportunities to succeed.

I want to hear from all of you. Share the hardest thing you've ever done that forced you to grow. For me, it was enlisting in the Army. It got me off the streets, it gave me a job, a skill set, and a jump start on my education. But it was hard. Very hard. And that was the best part.