Yes you read that right: The Importance of Achieving difficulty. Difficulty can be an achievement with the right mental perspective. This post is based on recent experience I had in relationship to my body. As older millennial in his early forties, I am noticing certain changes in my body; the graying hair, the expanding waistline even with a workout routine, the excessive bloating if I do not chew my carbs and what have you. Most of all, has been the drop in my physical tenacity and flexibility.

Now, I was never a professional athlete but as someone who played on his high school basketball team, one of my great accomplishments during exercise was attaining second wind – that feeling of resurgence when your lungs feel like they are about to tap out that gives your activity new life. This ability has been fading over the last five years even though I still love to go on runs during the week. For a long time, it was about going three to four times a week. Five years ago, I ran five days in a row and hurt my hamstrings and was sidelined for another three weeks. This gave me cause for pause and it seemed a better option to just go every other day from there on out. For the next five years, I only ran after at least a day of rest had been granted. Then I chose to incorporate the Day of Rest as part of my faith journey so that meant if I was going to stick to every other day, four days a week every other week would require a back-to-back. But I was terrified of back-to-backs.

Four days week was my best but often it was three. However, despite the three-mile runs I noticed I was not losing much weight. In fact, I was gaining weight. I made changes to my diet; increased veggies, reduced processed carbs, swapped out fruit juices for fresh fruit. Still not many changes. Was it my cortisol? I had been taking on more at work without making much of a fuss. I would tackle it with ease so it made less willing to complain and so my mind would move on to other things. Was I truly fit/healthy or was my body hiding something. Truth be told certain things are best diagnosed by a doctor but I was willing to explore everything I knew first hand before surrendering to any clinical advice.

One day, I came from a run on a Friday evening before shutting down for Rest Day and I was very disappointed. Here I was, having run four times that week, each three mile runs and my body did not seem to change. My muscles seem just retain a ton of mass. I was sweating and not shedding. Then I thought for a second. Had my body just adapted to the four-times a week runs? Was it not truly feeling challenged despite how tired I felt upon returning home each time? What was I not doing right?

I had a heck of a week approaching in which I was going to be on site for work each day that week. One of the benefits of working from home is that I could wake up, brush my teeth, make breakfast and start working by commuting from my dining table to my work computer. Often I would wrap work at the right time and go for a run at dusk. The coming week, I was aware returning home and going for a run would not be easy. In-office days had a way of breaking my will to run in the evenings which is why I always made sure to run mostly on my work-from-home days. So if I was going to make time for myself for my running, it would have to be in the mornings. Mornings are harder as there is often less time to stretch and shower before showing up to work by 8:30 – 9:00am. I was worried about losing my routine on account of a altered work week. I was worried I would slip into the pain of being restless for not having enough exercise. What was I going to choose?

I started on the Sunday of that week. This time I went running first thing in the morning instead of the usual evenings. I was hoping I would be quite exhausted by sundown to facilitate an earlier than usual bedtime. It worked. I was up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at earlier than usual times in which I was able to go for a run before going into work. It was my busiest week and yet I was able to stick to my new workout challenge the 3-mile morning run. By Friday, I was exhausted but the feeling of victory was priceless.

I had conquered a long-held belief about what my body was capable of at my age. I chose to give myself another week before resolving that a new perspective was in play. The following week without the same displacement obligations, I was able to repeat this routine. It was markedly more difficult than any routine I had in the past five years but it somehow was very liberating and it got me thinking. I needed to redefine my relationship to difficulty. What I noticed was the hardest day to get up was the third day – Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday would feel like a breeze even though they would be further into the week and supposedly more challenging. There’s an old saying: “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.” This is one of those. The greatest ease is on the other side of a measurable difficulty that requires a willful overcoming. This got me thinking…

I have heard from parents’ discussions (mostly friends & relatives with kids) the strain from having children. Those raising an only child often complain quite a bit. Those raising two never stop singing their challenges and expenses. Those who are set on reversing your hopes are those with three children. They will kill your hope of offspring by constantly reminding you how much money you need to have. But then the tides turn once you meet couples that have four or more kids. They seem to have somehow crossed the peak of difficulty into the zone of ease. You hear them often say, “It gets easier with more kids. They look after each other.” A challenge expected and prepared for just turns into just another step.

Thus, what steps lie ahead for that may be on the other side of what may now seem as a measurable difficulty? And is this difficulty an actual obstacle or just a figment of my imagination?