I have thought about this a lot in the last weeks as I have been training for a full IronMan and it has been VERY HOT in TN. I hear from some training partners about how they hate training when it’s so hot, or climbing big hills. I used to feel the same way, but now the heat is OK with me. I just accept it and go slower. I am training by heart rate anyway, so it really doesn’t make a big difference. Of course I go slower in the heat and up steep hills, but that is OK as long as I don’t have any #expectations about my speed. So it is not the heat or the hill that is bad, but #expectations. I can sit and grind out a run or ride in the heat or up a very long hill as long as I #acceptit. I remember years ago I was running the Shanghai marathon and it was freezing, sleeting, very winding and the air quality was really bad. My hands were cold, my mask had clogged up and lungs were burning. It was very HARD! And I had the realization that even though it was very hard, I would not say it was bad. At that time in my life, if I was having a very hard day at work, I would have labeled it “bad”, but that is also not the case. After that #realization, one of the core values we set in the company was “We do hard things.” Simple, but whenever we would get stuck with “This is hard”, we would smile and say, “That’s right! We #dohardthings.” And we did many really hard things and with #acceptance and sometimes even #joy. I was reminded of that listening to this Rich Rolle podcast Rich Rolle podcast with Arthur C. Brooks last week. Dr. Brooks is a happiness expert and is clear, by trying to avoid sadness and paid, we are equally limiting our happiness and fulfillment. It takes the high and low notes to make a symphony! It is through sadness and pain when we loose someone that we know we have really loved them. So is that heartache bad? NO! It shows how good we had it. He further said that happiness is made up of purpose, enjoyment and satisfaction. And #satisfaction is the ratio of what you have to what you expect. So you can increase what you have or decrease what you expect, like a fast time training when it is hot or having all of your team (or children) perform perfectly all the time. Decreasing these expectations, or wants, brings satisfaction and happiness.
Since I have started to live this way, I have a smile on my face much more of the time. I am more present with the high notes and not resisting the low notes, so they are just low. I know longer make them bad.
Let me know what you think of this podcast and how you have practiced accepting what is or doing hard things.
Have a great weekend,
Art
