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I recently completed something called the 4x4x48 Challenge.

The 4x4x48 challenge is:

• Running 4 miles
• Every 4 hours
• For 48 hours. 

So, every 4 hours (day and night) you head out for a 4 mile run. This means you’ll run 48 miles over the course of 48 hours.

For me, this was a tough challenge. It really required me to dig deep and keep pushing forward through the fatigue, aches and pains.

Now, maybe I’m a bit “broken”, but I honestly savor these types of experiences.

Not because I particularly enjoy the pain, difficulty or challenge… but rather the growth, strength and resilience these experiences forge.

In fact, when I’m feeling rather burned out, worn thin or depressed; a good challenge is usually the very thing that breathes life, vibrance and joy back into my heart and soul.

Now, if you’re feeling like life’s got you burned out and worn down (or maybe you’re looking for ways to more quickly grow your health, fitness or potential)... then read on and explore if a good challenge is the very thing you need.

Why Are Doing Hard Things So Valuable?

Struggle, difficulty or hardship is the only way to improve at anything in life.

Getting stronger requires the physical struggle of lifting weights. Learning new information or a new skill requires the mental effort of study. Creating a strong, healthy relationship requires emotional and communicational effort.

Challenging circumstances are the only way to expand your total human potential.

You can, inch-by-inch, expand your “circle of potential” making you stronger, faster, wiser, healthier, wealthier, and able to handle greater levels of pressure, stress and responsibility. As Williams James, the founding father of psychology, said, "Most people live in a restricted circle of their full potential."

If you want to pursue your greatest potential in life, you must be willing to do hard things.

However, there is a catch.

Growth doesn’t happen just because something is painful, challenging or difficult… it all hinges on how you choose to respond.

Build Or Break: How You Respond To Difficulty Matters

Whether or not a challenging experience will expand your potential greatly depends on your mindset (how you choose to respond).

Angela Duckworth (a psychologist who studies “grit” and perseverance) says there are two primary responses to hardship and adversity: 

1. Growth mindset & positivity
2. Fixed mindset & pessimism.

Growth Mindset

Growth mindset is the belief that, with practice, you can learn, improve, and succeed at anything… no matter how many times you fail. It’s choosing to, in the middle of the pain or difficulty, focus your attention on how this experience will positively impact your life. 

When facing challenges and adversity with this mindset, you will begin to view experiences of pain or adversity as an opportunity for growth; and you will begin to welcome those experiences knowing that you will be forged into a person of greater skill, character, empathy, resilience, strength, leadership and impact. You may even begin to seek out difficult and uncomfortable opportunities with the knowledge that you can accelerate the expansion of your potential by subjecting yourself to these forces…

Fixed Mindset

On the other hand, a fixed mindset is the belief that one is either naturally gifted and talented at something… or not. With this mindset, pain, difficulty and failure are proof that one isn’t “good enough” or naturally talented enough to succeed.

Individuals with this mindset develop an aversion to, and avoidance of, difficult or challenging situations because they will risk being exposed as “not good enough” or a “loser.” Over time, this fixed mindset can trap people in a shrinking circle of personal power; often feeling helpless or as a “victim” when hardship arises. 

Practicing Growth Mindset

Growth mindset, just like any skill, is built over time through practice and repetition.

The next time you face challenging circumstances or situations, focus your attention on the positive growth, improvement or result that will arise from this adversity.

Here are some examples:

• The challenge: you interviewed for a job but weren’t selected
• Growth mindset response: That’s pretty disappointing, but each new interview I do is improving my ability to communicate the value I bring as well as negotiate compensation.

• The challenge: Your manager gives you some criticism on a project at work.
• Growth mindset response: You don’t take it personally or get defensive. You’re grateful to get an outside perspective that will help improve your project.

• The challenge: you run a 4x4x48 Challenge and your calf muscles lock up at mile 40 (this example is oddly specific…)
• Growth mindset response: good golly this sucks, but practicing pushing on despite a lot of discomfort is going to make me much more resilient in future circumstances where the price of quitting may be much greater.

Whether you allow adversity to build you up or break you down is entirely dependent on how you choose to respond.

Start putting in the reps today to strengthen your growth mindset.

Conclusion:

Everyone will face some degree of adversity and hardship in life… and will usually experience some degree of growth over time. 

Most people will only face difficulty and grow when they need to… out of necessity. 

However, a select few will actively and intentionally seek out challenges in order to accelerate their growth… to force themselves into a greater number of opportunities to fail, learn, adapt and expand their potential.

This is the path to achieving your greatest potential and living this precious life to the absolute fullest.

LFG (Let’s Freaking Go) 

See you next week.