Do More Hard things
Since the world shutdown in 2020, I’ve heard more people talk of anxiety. I’ve heard that word more in the last 2 years than in the 41 years prior. I’m not sure if there are actually more cases of anxiety or if it has just become a catchword people use to describe not wanting to feel uncomfortable. Still, either way, it doesn’t change the fact that people are avoiding difficult things.
It’s Important
Doing difficult things makes us better and doing difficult things. It even crosses boundaries and silos in life. Showing up to the gym to do a tough workout that makes you want to stay home will make you more capable of having that tough conversation at work.
No matter what area of life your difficult things lie, doing them is a skill. Talking yourself into showing up and taking action is a vital life skill, and as with all skills, it gets better with practice. Without this skill, you’ll be limiting your potential for growth and joy in life.
I know it can be uncomfortable or scary for some of you, but the only way to get past that is to do it.
It Doesn’t Get Easier, and You Don’t Want It To
We have a saying, “CrossFit never gets easier; you just get fitter. But we wouldn’t want it to anyway.” The fitter we get, the more challenging exercises we can perform, the heavier we can lift, or the faster we can push ourselves to complete a workout. We love our workouts because of the results they get us, and we don’t want those results to stop.
We also value the mental challenge they give us. If the workouts got easier at some point, then we’d be missing that mental challenge. This is how doing difficult things works. The more of them you do, the better you get, and you’ll be able to take on more difficult things in the future. What scares you now won’t scare you in the future because you’ve proved to yourself you can do it.
Don’t be looking for things to get easier. Instead, do what is necessary to handle the task in front of you.
Be Proactive
Here’s the trick. Stop waiting to find the courage to do difficult things. Instead, shift your mindset into that of a conquerer. Actively look for something challenging to do every day. This might be showing up to a workout you don’t want to do. It might be telling someone “no” that you always say “yes” to. It might be starting your own business. It might be asking for a raise or promotion. It might be shutting your phone off in the evenings.
Be on the lookout. How can you practice the skill of doing difficult things today?
It’s How Growth is Done
When we opened our gym in 2015, I knew nothing about running a business. I thought we’d open our doors and that there were going to be hundreds of people wanting to do CrossFit but without the uber-competitive atmosphere. We were wrong. I had to learn how to run a business. I had to learn a bunch of new skills and make a lot of difficult choices.
At one point, we had to double our rates because we’d set them so low that we couldn’t keep our doors open; even if we had 100 members, the rates wouldn’t provide enough revenue to cover the rent on a building large enough to have 100 members. I knew that it was going to make a lot of people upset and that we’d lose about half of our members. It made me sick. I was afraid that everyone be mad and talk badly about us. We had to do it, or we’d have to close our doors.
We did it; we lost about half our membership, but only a couple were mad. Most couldn’t afford the new rate and moved on. It hurt, but membership grew over time, and our business improved. There have been dozens of similar situations that have played out over the life of our business, and things that were difficult to do 7 years ago are easy to do now. I’ve grown as a person and business owner because I choose to do difficult things.
You can do hard things. You can learn to seek them out. You can not be ruled by fear and anxiety.
Take action today. Do something difficult.