Struggle required

Tuesday, April 30

Are you willing to struggle?

I think that’s the key question when it comes to getting better. The goals can sound good, you can be motivated now and then, you can have a great plan, you can have it on your calendar. But are you willing to struggle? To suffer? To truly be uncomfortable along the journey?

I was talking to a friend recently about getting healthy. When it comes to losing weight, there are a number of factors at play but, at the end of the day, you must consume fewer calories than you burn. This is called a caloric deficit. If you consume less than you burn. The problem most people run into is that it is uncomfortable. It’s not the exercising that trips them up, it’s eating less. If you eat 2500 calories per day then try to go down to 2000, you will be hungry. And when you are hungry, you want to eat (I know, an earth-shattering revelation). And most people don’t have the discipline or the mental toughness to be hungry.

Which means that as much as they say they want to lose weight, they aren’t willing to struggle to achieve that goal. As soon as it’s uncomfortable, they run back to what is comfortable. ​Over time, the body will adapt to your new system (just like it adapted to consuming more calories over time). But this only happens if you are willing to be hungry.

The same is true with any goal. To be a better leader, you will struggle. To be a better communicator, you will struggle. To build a better culture, you will struggle. Most people who get started on the path of getting better, quit because of the struggle. Yet if they would just stay with it, they would acclimate. They would get stronger, more efficient, better able to handle the adversity of the moment.

This is the journey of growth. Excitment, struggle, adapt, grow, repeat.

Struggle is not optional. Are you willing to endure what’s necessary to get better?
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Keep chopping wood. 🪵🪓

-Kevin