Do Hard Things

Also, you're probably not drinking enough water.

Are you sure you can go 75 days without eating a single cookie? Two workouts a day sounds awful, I could never do that. A GALLON of water every day?? You must be crazy. 

One year ago, I heard statements like this on a regular basis, from friends and strangers alike. I had finally committed to the 75 Day Hard Challenge, and let me tell you, it was a challenge. All those well-meaning statements weren’t necessarily wrong, but they were simply not helpful. But, they challenged me to look at my own words when a friend has chosen to do something difficult, and to see where I may have created the same type of unsupportive environment without realizing it. This is one of the many lessons I learned during those 75 days. Here are my top five:

It’s possible to do really hard things, but you have to choose to do them and you have to mean it. 

Wanting to do something isn’t the same thing as deciding to do it. It’s easy to say “I’d like to live a healthier lifestyle,” but it’s a lot harder to decide to live it. The decision is more than saying we’ll do it; a genuine decision means we’ll make time on our calendar to go to the gym, put in the time to plan our grocery trips and meal prep, and treat our bedtime like an appointment we simply cannot miss. Even now that I’m not following the strict rules of the challenge, I’ve still retained the infrastructure of decision-making: if I want to lift five days a week, you can bet I’ll have those times blocked out on my calendar to make sure it happens. 

Drinking more water makes a BIG difference

I had no idea how dehydrated I was until I wasn’t dehydrated anymore. I did find that a gallon, while it was possible, was more than necessary; now, I shoot for 100oz per day, but I’d challenge you to find what feels right for you. My mind feels clearer, I have more energy, and I’m less tempted to reach for unnecessary snacks between meal times when I drink enough water. 

Not everyone is on your side. That’s part of the challenge. 

Even after I started, I would come across people who criticized me for the decision. I started to realize that when you make a decision to work on yourself, others may feel guilty they’re not doing the same, and their response is to criticize you for it. Even as I realized this, I looked inward to see that I’ve certainly done, and regrettably sometimes still do, the same when I see others with incredible discipline. So, use the critiques of others as fuel to stay on track, and as a reminder to do a self-audit of where you may be turning that negativity on someone else. 

Doing an arbitrary challenge doesn’t make you better than anyone else.

The 75 Day Hard taught me a lot and I’m glad I did it. But, I also recognize these lessons can be learned through other mechanisms; anything that pushes us towards discipline is valuable. I learned, too, that discipline can become an idol: if we start to take pride in our own discipline, we must be careful to remember the purpose of it all. This leads to my final lesson. 

Your discipline should make the world a better place. If it’s not, then it’s not discipline; it’s self-inflicted misery. 

One of the key unexpected lessons I took away was that sometimes my discipline got in the way of serving others. If I had to skip meaningful time with friends to get in my second workout of the day, or didn’t have time to load the dishwasher because I had to read my ten pages before going to bed, my discipline wasn’t serving the world. Now, I seek to balance discipline with discernment: often, I’ll set “ideal” goals and “minimum” goals, so I have some room for give and take if something comes up and I have to skip a workout or throw off my meal plan for the day. As long as I don’t let the one skip become a habit, it results in a more balanced life. Yet, the lack of mercy in the 75 Day Hard Challenge helped me to develop the discipline to recognize the need for balance. 

If you’re looking for a self-revealing challenge to test your discipline, I recommend giving the 75 Day Hard Challenge a shot. (If you’re looking for encouragement, meal plans, workout ideas, or other tips as you get started please reach out!) If you plan to try it, don’t wait too long for the perfect time to do it; there will be no perfect time, and that’s part of the point. But, whether you do it or not, I hope you find whatever it is that helps you see the value in discipline, shows you how strong you can be, and encourages you to drink enough water. 

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Journal Prompt of the Week

What element of the 75 Day Hard Challenge intimidates you the most? Why?

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What’s the hardest thing you’ve done, voluntarily, and what did you learn from it?