Every year thousands of people tell themselves they are going to make change and every year thousands of people fail.
Why?
Because change is hard.
Doing hard things is something that has gradually eroded from our day to day lives in modern humanity. Our lives are set up to be easy and comfortable. Which is great in some senses because we have a great quality of life.
On the other hand however, we unfortunately can never escape the need to do hard things and more importantly make hard decisions.
Problem is, we are set up to fail.
Think about your life right now.
We all want to eat better, get fitter and healthier.
Your access to readily available, highly palatable food is sky high. Yet most of that food isn’t going to give you the nutrition you need to fuel your body.
So you must make the effort to seek out good nutrition dense foods that isn’t filled with chemicals. And drink water rather than sugar filled drinks, brightly coloured and chemical filled energy drinks or creme filled coffee.
And when you do eat fruit, veg and protein you are branded a “health freak” because society more readily accepts someone who eats shit food, rather than someone who is health conscious.
Everyone wants to have more money and realistically your ability to make money has never been easier.
The access to information and ability to have other businesses is the highest it has ever been with the internet.
Yet social pressure dictates you must go on holiday every year, buy new cars, houses and stuff.
Rather than make some sacrifices, save and invest the money.
We all want more time.
Yet how much of our time is spent doing something of notable use? And how often are we scrolling the internet or social media looking for a stimulus for 10 seconds before moving on.
How much of our work is actually spent working?
We all want to look better.
And on the face of it we have more access to nutritional informaiton, workout routines and ideas than ever.
But the lure of quick fixes is ever enticing. 8 week crash diets or cosmetic surgery are more appealing than actually going to a gym and doing some work.
We are fed the need to have big asses, pecs and a six pack.
But in reality, once you move past the superficial layers of someones exterior, thats the person you end up wanting to date/ be with/ be around.
We have all the answers and the solutions to all of our problems.
The problem is we don’t want to put the hard work in to seek them out. And we are constantly distracted by the lure of an easier path.
Which is an illusion itself. Because if you look under the layers of someone successful. You either find a fraud or someone who has worked HARD for YEARS. Social media is toxic in this sense. Because it constantly portrays an illusion of someone rather than the reality.
Ultimately if you want to improve your life you need to have an element of discipline.
As Jocko Willink famously said “ discipline equals freedom.”
Our world is designed to distract us, make us feel like we are missing out, make us feel inadequate and make us think there is an easier way.
This is bullshit.
You aren’t missing out.
You are enough.
There is no easier way.
And if there was, you would have done it already.
You need to make some hard choices and do some hard stuff in order to get the end result you desire. It will ultimately cause you to make some sacrifices and spend some time out of your comfort zone but thats ok.
Double down on that hard stuff and I promise you good things will happen.
Think very carefully about where you spend your time and what you spend it doing.
And lastly, it is never too late to change.
“The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The seconds best time is now.”
About the Author:
Hi my name is Ollie McCarthy and I am a Running Coach and Personal Trainer in Tunbridge Wells. I help people to build fit, robust and capable bodies that look good but also perform well. This is done through a combination of running, mobility, strength and conditioning work.