The greatest potential for GROWTH

Life can be rough.

My dad used to say, “no one said life is fair. You better toughen up.”

Of course, as a rebellious teenager I didn’t care to hear that kind of harsh philosophy.

But like many things dad said, he was right.

Every day we have new challenges. We may go weeks without a significant punch-in-the-face challenge though..

Then one day it hits.

BOOM.

Everything goes wrong from the minute we open our eyes in the morning.

Those are the days where we have to dig deep.

Find out what we are MADE of.

On those days, we are given greater challenges, which bring greater rewards.

Break on through

One of my favorite songs used to be “Break on Thru’” by The Doors.

The chorus always fired me up, and still does to this day.

On difficult, frustrating, stressful days, I like to think of the message of that song.

In a universal sense, we all need to break on through to the other side.

For each of us, the details will be different but the message is the same.

We have to push ourselves to grow.

Nothing is gained by staying comfortable. We need friction.

Everyone knows this, deep down.

But when it comes time to deal with it, we often think it’s too much for us to handle.

Unfortunately, that’s how life works. As the saying goes, “when it rains, it pours.”

So what are we to do?

Embrace the moment

With the past behind us, and the future unknown, all we can do is focus on the present moment.

Not trying to escape it, no matter how painful, uncomfortable or stressful it may be.

To embrace the moment is to grow in mind and body.

Like that moment during a workout where you want to quit.. but you do another few reps.. giving everything you have to go beyond what your mind wanted to do.

This is something I’ve struggled with at times.

Staying in the moment when life is kicking my ass. Not trying to get out of it, but to embrace it and change my mindset to think about how this struggle will benefit me in the long-run.

Your mindset is everything.

If you’re like me, you may have overlooked that vague idea.

But the more experience I get in life, the more I realize that mindset is way more important than any program, plan or strategy.

Get your mind right and everything else will follow.