Choose Your Struggle

I’m a fan of unconventional things. This admiration of weird extends into almost every facet of my life; from hobbies, to people, music, how I prefer to do business, and specifically books. Enter Mark Manson.

Mark and I have built an intimate relationship and he doesn’t even know it. Next time you go into the book store, find a beautiful, little orange book titled “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a *beep*”. Yes, I have edited the title out of respect. Yes, he published a book with a curse word in the title. He doesn’t care, and it doesn’t matter. The point: when you stop caring so much about external stuff, and re-focus that energy on what really matters – you – that’s where the magic is. Is this starting to sound familiar yet? Opposites attract, The Secret, The Backwards Law, the list goes on.

Mark Manson

That page hit me like a brick wall. Combined with the other healthy doses of reality that he throws at you, it felt like an entirely new concept. It is important that we recognize that there are going to be speedbumps, there are going to be very uncomfortable situations before we hit our goals. I set goals, and most times I crush them, however sometimes I don’t fully commit to the rocky process and consequently fail at execution. What if by welcoming the setbacks, which tend to be the milestones before the end goal, our success rate went through the roof? What if we made I don’t like to-do lists?

Some examples could be:

1. I’m going to speak publicly as often as I can. In the beginning, it’s going to be awkward and I’m going to strongly dislike it.
2. I’m going to spend most of my personal time to an educational course for the next three months. Social events and trips are off.
3. I’m going to dedicate time and energy to exercising for the rest of my life. I’m likely not going to see results right away and it will be disheartening.

Sometimes we need to get real with ourselves and choose the struggle. For those of you that need ultra-positivity, that is totally okay if it’s working. If it’s not, could this work? I jumped into that question’s rabbit hole of self-analysis head-first and thought to myself “what a wonderful world”. Just kidding, it was interesting to say the least, and it will be ongoing, but it is a wonderful world.