Adding degrees of difficulty

I had a conversation last week about staying in the habit of challenging yourself to try new things, achieve new goals, and conquer things that are hard for you.

The person I was talking to seemed surprised that I thought it was important to make life hard.  That misses the point.  Life is hard. It gets even harder if you get out of the habit of hard work, discipline and putting your head down and plowing through the tough stuff.

Perseverance, like any other skill, needs practice to stay sharp.  In the course of life, there are hard times and easy times.  Perseverance is necessary to successfully negotiate the hard times, so it is important to exercise perseverance in the easy times to maintain the skill.

How can you practice perseverance in the easy times?  There are many ways.  One way is to voluntarily tackle a chore you absolutely do not want to start much less finish.  Forcing yourself to do things you do not enjoy the act of doing, but enjoy the result of, is a great way to practice perseverance.

Learn a new hobby.  Even try a new aspect of an old hobby.  I love to crochet.  I learned to crochet when I was five.  I have recently purchased a new crochet book, and am learning new stitches, new techniques, and trying to create new garments unlike anything in my past.  Is is difficult?  Yes.  Have I ripped out hours of stitches?  Yes.  Did I want to quit?  Yes.  Am I making progress?  Yes.  Does it feel great?  Absolutely yes!

Last week, on Thursday, I did interval work to improve my racewalking speed and form.  I have had a love-hate relationship with speedwork since I started running for fitness in 1987.  For those of you who are not familiar with the term speedwork, it is a technique that is used to train your body to go faster.  Speedwork develops both foot turnover and oxygen efficiency.  A speed workout involves a warm-up, followed by a fixed burst of maximum controlled effort, followed by a fixed recovery period, followed by a fixed burst of maximum controlled effort, followed by a fixed recovery period, with a certain number of repetitions, all closed with a cool-down.

The first maximum controlled effort interval is always painful.  These are exhausting workouts if done correctly, and it can be difficult to court exhaustion.  Ah, but when the workout is over! Huge endorphin boost (I'll talk about endorphins another day) and huge sense of accomplishment.  Plus, you get to exercise your perseverance skills.

The hard times will come.  During hard times, it can be difficult to open your eyes, get out of bed, and put one foot in front of the other.  If you have practiced your perseverance skills, the power of the habit of perseverance might just be the thing you need to get up and keep going.

So, try something new.  Do something that is difficult for you.  Add degrees of difficulty in the easy times.  Develop habits that make you strong, physically, mentally and emotionally.  Be prepared to persevere through the hard times.

And one more thing.  Notice others in your world.  When they are going through hard times, persevere with them.  Your strength can become their strength, your perseverance the boost they need to keep going.

We're all in this together.   Remember to use your strength to lift others up, not push them down.