Challenge can teach you everything you would ever want to know about yourself and becoming better.

Finishing a challenge isn’t how you get better, it’s the road there that makes you who you are.

Think about the hardest things you have ever done in life. When you finished, was it about the destination or about the climb that made you great?

For me, most of my accomplishments in life made me who I am by having to overcome the challenge and grow into that person.

In 1998 I set foot on the Yellow Foot Prints at MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) San Diego to become a United States Marine. The Yellow Foot Prints are the first place you stand when you get off the bus going into a three-month challenge that would make you part of an elite group.

The Marine Corps is the smallest branch of the U.S. military and has by far the longest and hardest initial training of any other force. In fact, all the other branches take Marine Boot camp as their basic training, but the Marine Corps won’t take anyone else’s.

All through Boot Camp, I was told to gain the coveted title of Marine. During Boot Camp, you are a Recruit. It isn’t until you finish Boot that you become a Marine. In fact, there is a private ceremony to give you the Eagle Globe and Anchor (EGA) to wear on your uniform signifying you are a Marine. Later you get a gradution ceromony. But no one cares. All of us just wanted that EGA that said we were a Marine and would be called that.

I was on a high for about 10 days (that is your leave after Boot Camp). Once I reported to the next step, MOS (Military Occupational Speciality) School no one cared that I was a basic Marine. In fact, everyone there was a Marine and had gone through the same thing. But it was on to the next step, School of Infantry for me. Now I had to become an Infantry Marine.

And so our journeys go. I was a much better version of myself after every evolution of my training as a Marine. And I become better after going to combat and then battling my PTSD demons. Now I’m a much better version of myself mentally.

But there is always the next challenge. If there isn’t one, you need to make one.

Right now I’m signed up for the L’Etape of San Antonio. It is a qualifying race for the Tour de France. No, I’m not really racing with those guys. There are fun rides normal people can sign up for. I signed up for the 25-mile race. Which is a lot for me. I’ve never finished 25 miles on a bike before signing up. Now I have. And it was painful but it makes me better.

Every training ride is harder than the last and makes me better physically and mentally.

I believe you are either growing as a person or regressing. Do you want to grow into a better person? Or regress to something you use to be? Or worse, become the worst version of yourself there has ever been. All three are possible. It’s your choice.

The growth is in the struggle to be ready for a challenge. Do you want to be the hero of your story and overcome the challenge or the victim that someone has to come and rescue?

You become a hero by moving towards challenges in life. Look at any movie. No hero wants to go on the journey but does for sometimes great reasons and sometimes dumb reasons. But they all reluctantly go at first, then go all in.

Most of the time they have had a life of struggle that prepares them for the journey.

If you are part of the modern world, struggles are getting less and less. Which is both good and bad.

But you can decide to take on a challenge and make yourself better. Then do another and another. Sometimes physical challenges are the best, and sometimes you might have to take a mental challenge. Sometimes they are great challenges like completing a physical race that is further than you have ever gone before and sometimes they are mental and as simple as taking a couple of minutes a day to read a book to improve yourself.

Find a challenge that looks almost impossible to complete. Sign up and go after it. It will make you a better person.

As you complete that challenge, find someone to help along the way become a better person. Then they can help someone else, and someone else, and pretty soon, everyone will be better. And if everyone in the world was a better person, the world would be a better place.

Make yourself better and make the world a better place. Find a challenge and complete it.

Ben Branam

P.S. Check out my guide to completing the 75 Hard Challenge here. If you can’t find a challenge, this one will make you better. All you have to do is complete it.

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