VOLUNTARY HARDSHIP
Many have written about the concept and benefits of hard work. A lot of people work hard. Hard work can mean many things and can look different to many people. Shift work is hard. Manual labor is hard. Raising children is hard. Working an office job is hard. Getting up at 5am is hard. Holding your tongue when someone hurts you is hard.
Not all hard work and hardship is mandatory.
Voluntary hardship is something we do by choice.
These are things we push ourselves to do even though we don’t necessarily have to. Since hardship can be unpleasant at times, especially in the moment, it usually requires some discipline to maintain.
Discipline is almost a dirty word today. The idea that you should stick with something even when you don’t want to is lost on many who medicate with whatever ‘thing’ that brings them comfort in the moment.
When the sound of the alarm rings in your ear at an hour long before you would normally choose to wake up you’re forced with a decision. Do you make the short-sighted choice that gives you momentary relief or do you expose yourself to that hardship that refines you?
That’s what voluntary hardship does to us. It refines us. It strengthens us. It distills the parts of our will and our character that arrive when we encounter self doubt.
For me personally, I’ve learned how beneficial voluntary hardship can be through CrossFit.
The mind is an amazing and unpredictable thing. It controls us and if we don’t get a handle on it, it can rule us in ways we do not want it to.
Through my own personal CrossFit journey, I learned how to not only control my body, but control my mind.
When I started CrossFit in 2009, it wasn’t that way. I struggled for years with times when my mind would be IN control and life would spin OUT OF control.
Fast forward to today when I understand a few things a bit more clearly.
Number one, I understand what CrossFit has done for my physical body.
I am in better shape today at 40 than I was at 30. By “shape” I mean that physically I have more strength and muscle mass and cardiovascularly I can manage higher work loads in shorter amounts of time. The combination of these two things has made me healthier at an older age and has prepared my body for life (whether that be moving loads of groceries, carrying a child or helping an adult in need to their feet, jumping out of the way of a falling object, catching myself before falling and sustaining injury, or healing from an injury).
Number two, is that my mindset is stronger today than it has ever been.
Through putting myself through hardship day in and day out I’ve grown as a person. I’m not afraid of things I used to be afraid of. I’ve learned to “self soothe”. A term that is often used when small children need to learn how to put themselves back to sleep. But even as adults in times of stress we need to understand we can self sooth and not spiral out of control in any given situation.
I’ve learned to struggle a little and be ok with it.
CrossFIt is hard. Every single day you are faced with a challenge that you need to overcome. Something you need to do that is tough, that you’ve never done before, that you aren’t good at, that you might fail at… and you get through it. My body heat rises and I know I’m going to be ok. My breathing increases and I know I am going to be ok. I am struggling to lift something and I know I am going to be ok and not get injured. I am running and want to stop but I know I can keep going and be ok.
These lessons, played on repeat, carry over into all aspects of life and trust me when I tell you that it matters on the other side!
We all know that sometimes life is hard. And it can be scary. And it can invoke doubt. But we do things voluntarily to make us better BECAUSE they are hard and because these things refines us. For you this may be something outside of a gym or CrossFit setting but you know that you you can endure, learn and grow.
And you will be stronger and tougher. And you will be prepared for times that life kicks you in the teeth and wants to take you down.
Life can’t take us down. We’ve trained for it. We’re ready for it and everything it can throw at us.
Bring it on.