4 mins read

Challenge Yourself

You don’t know what you can do until you need to.

“Woman lifts car off trapped child”
“Boy survives six days in collapsed apartment”
“Trapped climber amputates own arm”
“Failing student aces college entrance exams”

Ok, I made up that last headline, but all the others come from web/news searches.

Why is it that when challenged to survive we (humans) can perform amazing feats of strength, endurance, and courage, but when looking at our everyday lives we don’t believe in ourselves?

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It’s comfortable

You get up in the morning, struggle through the daily routine, and climb back in bed at the end of the day.

It may not be the best of times, but it isn’t the worst of times either. Everyone is reasonably healthy, the important bills are being paid, there’s a few dollars for a night out here and there – or a day at the amusement park with the kids.

I’d go on, but I’m sure you get the picture. This is that “steady state” or “auto-pilot” that we sometimes get into during our lives. Nothing is really “moving”, but there are no big problems either.

Something happens

And then something happens. A job is lost, an illness is discovered, the furnace needs replacing, a friend moves away…

And in the face of that challenge we “discover” that we can do a whole lot more than we knew before. Forced into action, we network, research, scrape together funds, form extended bonds, and “do” all sorts of things that we had not considered before.

This activity is by no means always successful. Jobs can be scarce, and illnesses fatal. But that doesn’t change the nature of our response. We are ready and willing to put up the fight – for these extraordinary events.

Everyday battles

But faced with the mundane, we’re generally content to live with the status quo.

An accident that takes someone to the brink of life we’ll address – to recover from and keep from happening in the future. But the slow effects of tobacco, alcohol, excessive weight, and drugs – these we’ll glance away from for years.

Financial ruin we’ll rally around, but habitual overspending is ok.

Failing classes we’ll support with tutors, but mediocre grades we’ll accept.

Accidents we’ll cry about, but bad habits are ok.

Challenge yourself

What can you do about this? You can challenge yourself. Get out of your shell before the crisis hits. Be involved, stay connected. It doesn’t take much, and you’ll see benefits. Instead of reacting to life, you’ll be living it. Instead of worrying about what you can’t do, you’ll find out what you can. And you’re much less likely to wake up twenty years from now and wonder – what have I done with my life?

Don’t wait to find out what your limits are, try something fun, extra, or new – even if you don’t succeed like you had hoped, you have the experience.

Ever hear stories of people that create a list of things they want to do before they die? Try it – spend an afternoon jotting down all of the things you’d like to have a chance to do, places to see, things to eat, people to meet – and hang that on your wall. And then live your life. Finding a way to cross items off that list will take you on adventures – and challenge you.

Even at home you can find ways to try something new, press yourself to greater success, get out of a daily rut. Runners model this philosophy well. In addition to all of the various running venues we have today, the “running plus” events have continued to grow over the years. Running and swimming (aquathlon), running and cycling (duathlon), running and swimming and cycling (triathlon), running and navigating (orienteering) – If you want to do more than just run from place to place, you can!

Unexpected results

I can’t promise that you will win any sporting medals, star on stage, or invent the next gadget, but you will probably surprise even yourself. You are better than you thought, and you can do more than you have.

And you could find a new hobby that you really enjoy.

And that may wake you out of your complacency.

And that might just make all the difference.