How many times a year do you challenge yourself? And do you enjoy it?

I want to challenge myself a bunch, but it’s hard. Last year in July I went to Yosemite National Park in California. One of the most beautiful places in the world. And the further away from people you get, the more beautiful it gets. The park is in the High Sierra’s and the change of elevation is incredible.

It goes straight up and straight down to different places. We hiked and hiked, and hiked some more. I walked 6 miles the first day, 8 miles the second, and 4 miles the last day. That might not sound like a lot for you, but it was a lot for me. It was actually as much as I could do. It was a great test to see if I could actually finish. I did and it felt great.

This year, on New Year’s Day, I went for a 25 miles bike ride. It took me two hours and it is as far as I’ve ever ridden a bike. I enjoyed it when I was done. Not so much while doing it.

Most challenges are like that. But if you don’t challenge yourself how will you ever know if you can handle hard things.

It is not about doing physical accomplishments, it is about doing hard things so that you know you can do hard things. The military, law enforcement, the 75 Hard Challenge all use hard physical things so shape you mentally. Your mental toughness is the thing that will let you accomplish anything. The best way to build mental toughness is to do hard things. Doing hard (for you) physical things is something you can do almost every day.

If you want to be mentally tough so you can accomplish anything in life, do physically hard things. And increase that toughness every time by making it different or harder.

This year I signed up for a bike race. I am doing the 25-mile part for my first race ever. Next time I’ll do something harder. This one is a lot harder than anything I’ve done lately. The last 25 miles I road was from point A to B with it being mostly downhill. This race is a loop with as much elevation gain as possible in the San Antonio area (yes, Texas is really flat).

What physical hard thing could you do today in order to improve your mental toughness to become a better person and make the world a better place?

Ben Branam

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