New year, same me
The best version of yourself is within you, just hidden by the comfort-seeking decisions you make daily. You don't have to change yourself; you just have to do the work.
A year of doing the hard thing (consciously or pushed to do it by the universe) made 2024 one of the most important years of my life.
However, as I’m looking at my journal, trying to come up with what I’ll do in 2025, I can’t help but think that I just need to keep that motto: “Do the hard thing” for as long as I can.
(In previous posts, I have mentioned how, after failing to reach the summit of the Nevado del Tolima in January, I ended up choosing the motto “Do the hard thing” for the rest of the year).
I thought maybe I could change it up this year and make it my “Be authentic,” or my “Learn new things,” or my “Do X crazy athletic challenge” year, but to be honest, I think simplicity is better. And the one thought that pushed the needle all of last year was “Do the hard thing.”
When you tattoo that phrase on your mind, you know that whenever there is hesitation about doing something, you just have one option: doing the hard thing.
But maybe you’re wondering, what exactly does that mean?
Well, if we’re honest with ourselves, we all know exactly what we should do to have a better, wealthier, healthier, and successful life. But, what stops us is the seduction of comfort.
When it gets to 6 pm, you have finished work, it’s raining outside and you encounter the choice of either staying at home watching some Netflix to destress from the day, or braving the outside world to go to the gym and push yourself to transform your body. Comfort is shouting at you, telling begging you to stay. It will be nice and cozy. The gym will be there tomorrow, you can go when it’s not raining and you’re nice and fresh in the morning. But doing the hard thing, the thing that will push the needle and in six months will give you guaranteed results, is simply, just going to the gym.
(That’s just a quick example, but you can apply it to everything in your life, from career progress, and finances, to relationships, to even home tidying).
When you have that motto in life, you don’t have to wait to be struck by inspiration, be motivated, or feel like a thousand bucks to finally do what you must—you just go and do it.
“The magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding.”
Although I do have goals I want to accomplish this year, I know that the only thing that will get me to accomplish them is following that motto.
Last year proved to me that I’m capable of lots of things I thought I would never do. It also made me more comfortable with doing hard things. And let’s be honest, we wouldn’t be anywhere in life if we only did what we wanted, or chose the easy way, or the comfortable way. No. Growth, real growth, is just on the other side of those things we don’t particularly WANT to do but we know we HAVE to. We do what’s right; don’t wait for something to feel right.
The funny thing is that, if you had seen the Cristina from two years ago, you would have thought I was doing the “hard thing” already. After all, I completed a half marathon, I competed in open-water swimming, I worked, I went to therapy, and so on.
But if I’m being honest with myself, the universe, and you, the truth is, I was pushing myself as far as my comfort zone allowed me. Reaching the limit of my comfort zone, but never going past it.
Of course, my comfort zone had expanded in previous years to be further than other people’s comfort zones, but it was still a comfort zone. When I hiked the Nevado del Tolima last year, and my physical health didn’t allow me to reach the summit, I had to have a SERIOUS talk with myself.
How come all the others were able to do that and I was struggling so much?
I had this self-image of being super fit and capable of anything, and one mountain showed me what was real.
And the mountain was just the tip of the iceberg. I started to see how in many areas of my life that I thought I was doing well, I was actually still struggling. My mental health was poor. I had no self-control for certain things. And I was getting too used to playing it safe. Sure, I competed in open water swimming and ran that half marathon, but in a year of training for both those things, I didn’t really improve my times. They were “good” from the get-go, but if I had put my head down and done the work outside of my comfort zone, I could have done a thousand times better.
I was settling.
And I know, this whole thing of “doing the hard thing to achieve your goals” might be the dumbest thing anyone has said. “Oh, but Cris, that’s so obvious and cliché.” Yes, it might be super obvious, but as many lessons in life, until you don’t go through them, you don’t really, REALLY get them.
So, this year will be my second year having the motto “Do the hard thing.” And, although I know you’ve either already learned this lesson or you’ll be better off learning it at your own pace and timing, I just want you to try and stick with it for this year.
You know the vision of your life you want to bring to reality, and you can feel what success in the different areas of your life is like. Now, have a serious chat with yourself and think about what you have to do to achieve them. Put your head down and move the needle this year.
Kiss goodbye to your comfort zone, and get excited about what your life will look like in a year of doing the hard thing. January hasn’t ended, and millions of people have already given up on their goals. Make sure you’re not one of them.
1% better every day is all it takes.
Books and podcast recs
Before I end today’s newsletter, I want to leave you with a couple of books and podcasts that have helped me immensely to shift my comfort-chasing mind and turn me into a pushing-myself-beyond-my-comfort-zone-with-a-smile-on-my-face kind of person.
Books:
The Mountain is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage into Self-Mastery: Easy to read, but you’ll have to read it slowly to ensure everything properly sinks in and you take a good look at yourself.
Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender: Pretty dense, but understanding the different levels of consciousness is truly transformational. You can see where you stand and slowly move up.
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos: Cliché titles, but strong lessons. If you’re not very religious this might be a bit of a drag as he talks a lot about examples from the Bible (although if you see past it is great). My only comment is that it could have been shorter.
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself: Easy to read. Powerful lessons. A must.
Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds: I just love the crazy athlete’s mindset Goggin’s has. You don’t have to push to THAT extent, but it shows you how true the “mind over matter” idea is and you can apply this beyond athletic performance.
Podcast:
9 Lives podcast: Exemplary weight loss journey, but what’s important is the shift in her mindset that had to happen for her to just focus on the 1% better each day and, with that, achieve INSANE results in her sports life, she went from walking 10 minutes struggling for breath to running ultra marathons a few times per year, and in all areas of her life. A great daily reminder that all you have to do is put in the work—slowly but surely.
That’s it for today!
Thank you for reading, hope you find this useful!
I’ll be here rooting for each one of you to make 2025 YOUR YEAR!
See you soon in the next issue of MindfulMess.
With MindfulMessy love,
Cris. 💌