Each Monday, Forged & Unbroken posts a new "Growth Mindset" mini podcast on the Patreon. It's pulled from personal experience and books we've read. We pull ideas from various sources, expand on them, and relate them to personal growth for the fire service, but honestly any human can benefit. One of my favorite things to do for growth, happiness, peace, and exercise is to get outside and hike. They all look different - different places, lengths, difficulty, and topography. And with each one, no matter how small or grand, there has always been a lesson. Recently, I was in AZ with a close group of friends. We had to adjust our hiking plans on the fly, and we ended up on the north side of the intended start point, traveling through icy switchbacks with quick elevation gain. We made it to the first bench and thought we were going to be back on dry arid Arizona red dirt, the same we could see on the opposite side of the mountain driving in. Instead, we were met with mud, run-off and knee high snow. After talking about it later, It crossed much of our minds to turn around and head back. We looked up to the peak, knowing we had more miles to go, and collectively, silently, trudged on. We continued to post-hole in sometimes two feet of snow. We slid down trails. We lost layers of protective clothing in the wind gusts. We were soaking wet, bruised, and some even bleeding from the icy crust. But, we made it to the peak. The views were insane and made the entire hike worth every step. I’d be lying if I said I didn't get a little emotional. On the way back down, we had to make a decision to go back the way we came, or head down the sun-facing side of the mountain. It was too dangerous to go the way we came; we would figure out how to get back to our vehicles when we got back down (we ultimately did, a friendly hiker [Luke] we met on the way saved our ass and got us back to our vehicles). We got to experience both sides of the mountain, the shade, the ice, the bruised and bleeding, and the sun-facing, dry, blue-bird sky side. And herein lies the analogy for life. Struggle is divine. How many times in life have we gone down a path to be met with difficulty, ambiguity, hardship, loneliness, the lack of preparedness or knowledge to even know how to forge ahead, or even the physical ill-preparedness. We look behind us, because that’s the known path, that’s the safe place of knowing where we’ve come; there is safety in what is known. We stand at the crossroads and we need to make a decision. The internal monologue becomes distracting - do I stop or keep going? Forge ahead. Growth comes from change, it doesn’t come from being stagnant. The rearview mirror is there to check what is behind us, but we don’t turn around in our seat to change trajectory. When you do come out on top, the literal mountain-top or maybe it’s the challenge you’ve been facing day in and day out in your life - lean in. Research has shown that oxytocin is released during periods of struggle within a group. That’s why it’s common to see shared-struggle and a coming-together during hardship - think natural disasters, 9/11, difficult physical tests - people look back on these events almost fondly - there was shared struggle, there was shared community, there was shared growth. As long as you’re not pouring from an empty cup, the struggle you face absolutely makes you stronger. You’ll come out with a fresher perspective, hardened advantage, and the security knowing you can do hard things. Embrace the struggle - it is divine. “It’s all going to be fine / I put worries out my mind / I always must remind myself that struggle is divine / Society draws lines / But they are not how one defines / Relax and give it time / It’s all going to be fine.” - Bumping Uglies, Optimism in F# https://youtu.be/kkrDFeciAHw