Why I like doing hard things
I hiked Half Dome this week! It was awesome.
Half-Dome is universally recognized as a challenging day hike: 17 miles, 5000-foot elevation gain, and unique upper body challenge with the cables. But it didn't feel that difficult for me, and I say this in the least self-aggrandizing way possible. Why is that? Well, physical fitness is part of it. But I've been hiking and backpacking a lot in the last few years. The first few difficult hikes I did - Grand Canyon, Castle Dome, Sykes Hot Springs - were really hard. I wasn't always sure I'd make it. But now, there aren't many hiking-related discomforts I haven't already experienced. No scary situations I haven't ultimately survived. So now, "hard" hikes seem less hard, or at least doable.
At the same time, I did a bunch of other things on the Half-Dome trip that probably don't seem that hard for other people but were actually hard for me.
One of them was cooking eggs for breakfast. Even though I love eggs and know how delicious and nutritious they are, I've had this mental block for a while that I can't cook eggs well. And so whenever I think about cooking eggs for breakfast, I hesitate. That's probably one of the reasons why I haven't developed a good breakfast habit. But on this trip, I cooked eggs for myself three times. The first time I made the eggs, I wasn't the happiest with them. They were soggy and not fluffy; I shouldn't have added water. The other two times were much better. I think I've figured out how to make them how I like (scrambled eggs, fight me), and I've overcome my mental block. And now, making eggs doesn't seem that hard anymore.
I also have a mental fear of large bodies of water, especially ones where the water's cold, and I'm worried I'll freeze up and not be able to swim and maybe drown. I know how to swim well; I have a mental block. When I backpacked in the Trinity Alps a few weeks ago, I was nervous about taking a cold plunge into this freezing-cold glacial lake called Emerald Lake. I eventually did it. I didn't end up swimming in the lake, but I fully submerged my head, walked around a bit, got used to the temperature of the water, and realized that it wasn't so bad. That made it so that when we went to a different lake in Yosemite, I felt much more comfortable wading in, swimming around, and staying there for 45 minutes. And suddenly, the idea of being in large bodies of water doesn't scare me as much anymore.
When I first thought of writing a newsletter each week, I had no idea what I would write. I didn't know what I wanted to write about and how to structure the newsletter. And so writing that first post was really, really hard. It took me pretty much the entire day. I didn't do any work that day. And it honestly felt like I was wasting my time because of how difficult and brain-numbing it was. However, now that I'm writing the second post words are flowing much smoother. And even though I know my writing isn't perfect, I'm feeling much more comfortable about the mistakes I'm making and have more trust in myself that I'll eventually correct those mistakes.
I started this year thinking that one of my goals for the year was to Be uncomfortable. I knew I felt strongly about it, and I knew that doing so would have a strong, positive impact on my life. But now, looking back at the post, I don't think I properly articulated or even understood why.
I think the answer is that doing hard things makes doing other hard things feel much easier. Approaching something difficult in life and not having fear or apprehension about it because you've already done something harder is such a freeing, leveraging, multiplying feeling. The freedom it gives you is just a positive feedback loop. Once you start doing hard things, you'll keep doing more and more of them. I'm going to keep doing hard things, and you should too.