As many of you probably know, I am doing the 75 Hard Challenge – and it’s a challenge all right. In the video below, I do a book a review of the 75 Hard Challenge Book. So, if you want to listen, hit the play button. If you prefer to read, scroll down to see my shownotes.
For those who know about the 75 Hard Challenge, it’s a book about mental toughness – and if you’ve been following me for a while now, you’ll know how I absolutely do NOT like the term ‘mental toughness’ because I believe it’s about being angry with yourself. I know some people might think it’s semantics, but I think it’s more deeper than that. So, I like to see this book as a way to get mental discipline.
75 Hard is a 75-day challenge where first, you need to do two 45-minute workouts daily, and one of those workouts needs to be outdoors. The second thing you have to do is to take a progress picture of yourself – which you may think is really easy, but apparently that’s how people mess up. Because when you forget to do a step in the 75-days daily challenge, you have to start over to Day 1 again.
Another task in the challenge is to drink four liters of water daily. Plus, you also have to follow a diet of your choosing. Lastly, you have to read 10 pages of a self-development book per day. Just like the progress photo, if you do a cheat meal, skipped your pages, or only drank three liters of water – you have to go back to day one.
Again, I don’t like the concept of mental toughness because I think it’s rooted to anger. It’s a lack of forgiveness towards the self. And my whole being is about how do we be at peace with ourselves – where we are now. It’s not a competition, but a journey.
And so, I like to call it mental discipline. Doing the 75-hard is for my mental discipline.
I accept that I am human and that I have fault – and so I can give myself the grace not to be too hard on myself. Mental discipline means to have discipline in our actions, thoughts, and emotions. It’s the reason why I started 75-hard.
75 hard is getting into the habit of doing the things you don’t want to do when you need to do it – even when you don’t want to do it.
Our level of happiness is tied in direct proportion to how discipline we currently are or how much discipline we are currently exercising. You see, when we feel like we have control, we feel empowered and fulfilled. There is a level of satisfaction from doing something that you didn’t want to do, but you still went ahead and did it because you know you needed to.
Happiness is the feeling of fulfillment. And it’s very fulfilling to know that you can count on yourself, right?
