Do every day or two something for no other reason than its difficulty

Talking with a friend today who lifts weights at the same gym I do, he said, “What I love about it is that it is difficult. It is just hard”. It made me think of this line from William James. We spend so much time looking to make things easier, when doing the hard thing is often so rewarding. Every Friday is my date with the trap bar dead lift, the bench press, the overhead press, and the lateral pull down. And it is hard. And that is why it is worth doing.

I need to do more hard things.

Yesterday I dead lifted 200 lbs. at 7:50 am. That was sufficiently hard. I also left work early to make a family obligation – and it is never easy to leave work early.

Today I walked farther than I needed to, in the middle of the day, the “wrong” way around the park. This wasn’t the hardest thing to do, but it is never easy to break from the usual routine. I also lost at CCR and didn’t whine about it.

Now, I’m going to go try and introduce Buster to someone I know who owns a bar. Since I don’t know this guy super well, haven’t talked to him in a while, and don’t know what Buster wants to ask him, it will take getting over some shyness – but I think that is what this goal is about. Getting more comfortable being uncomfortable.