Resist the Hack, Love the Journey
Do you know Rich Roll?
He’s a celebrated ultra Ironman triathlon runner. He completed 5 Ironman events in the Hawaiian Islands in 2010. By the way, he did it in only 7 days. And, he only eats plants.
If you ask Rich how in the world was he able to do it, he’ll say it’s in the “grind.” He loves the grind, the training, the process, the journey.
He wrote about it in his book, a bestselling memoir, “Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World’s Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself.”
One of the biggest self growth takeaways we can learn from Rich Roll is to “resist the shortcut, embrace the grind.”
To aspire for wholeness and greatness in our lives means a constant state of daily training. In a sense, it’s disbelieving the finish lines. Instead, we embrace the daily grind of meaningful, persevering work.
“I’m getting impatient, when will I get well,” asked a young man in therapy recovering from chronic depression and multiple suicidal attempts.
It’s typical. We live in a culture with demands for (illusory) instant gratification, hacks, easy work, and entitlements to a good life.
Rich confronts this:
“Failure or success ... is what gives the journey proper context, rich consistency, and towering emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual stakes that fertilize the soul for quantum growth irrespective of outcome. And growth is everything. But it can only result from earnest investment in experience.”
Out of the process, the grind, the journey, Rich argues, we derive a readiness for the arrival of a new, better self.
Resist the hack, love the journey.
Secrets of Your Self: