Last year I made a promise to myself to get out of my comfort more, I read a book by David Goggins “Can’t Hurt Me” that inspired me to become the best version of myself.
One thing that stuck with after the book is understanding that our brain default programming is seeking comfort and follow the path of least resistance.
“Every morning in our lives, we have a choice to make. You have the choice to stay in bed and say ‘Forget it, I’m not going to work out today.’ or ‘Forget it, I’m not going to work hard today.’ That’s your choice that you make every single day of your life. Make the right decision.” David Goggins
So I decided to do a challenge for a month, the rules were that I would go for a 30-minute rule every other day, during the rest days I would walk for 30 minutes. I want to share what I learned during this process.
1. Everything In Life Is A Mind Game
No matter what you are going through in life good or bad, you are always in control of how you respond. Our mind is a program to always seek negativity because of the negative bias. You have done the work every day to change your thoughts because how you think will dictate how your behaviour and respond to situations.
This is why you have to seek discomfort because you train your mind to think beyond what you are capable of. When I first started running, I didn’t think I could run for more 30 minutes straight. Through training, I was able to push through the mental wall that you hit when you are running and learn that you cannot give in when the pain hits.
2. Motivation Is Crap
Motivation comes and goes, when your driven, whatever is in front of you will get destroyed. Relying on motivation will never get you anywhere. Action leads to motivation, not motivation leads to action. You’ll never have the motivation to do what you don’t want, that’s why discipline comes from.
One of the things that separate successful people from the average individuals is their ability to keep going failure after failure and never getting discourage because failure is testing and learning. When you have a strong WHY motivation is not needed, find out whats your why and when adversity hits always remind yourself why you started.
3. You Can Always Change Your Circumstances
“We are all great. No matter if you think you’re dumb, fat, been bullied, we all have greatness. You gotta find the courage. It’s going to be hard work, discipline, and non-cognitive skills — hard work, dedication, sacrifice — that will set you apart.” David Goggins
There is no excuse to not live to your full potential, no matter what you do or look like. Developing courage is like building muscle, you have to work on to become stronger. The more you use it the better you become. It will be scary and everything in your body will tell you to quit but you have to keep going to become the best YOU.
