A few weeks ago, I was listening to a radio show one morning and the hosts were talking about something that intrigued me…

they were discussing how you have to “choose your hard.”  

They were going back and forth discussing a few examples.  They mentioned, “Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard.”  Another one they discussed is, “Starting a business is hard. Working a full-time job is hard. Being unemployed is hard. Choose your hard.”  And then the one that really caught my attention, “Eating healthy is hard. Struggling with disease is hard. Choose your hard.”

What do you think about this?

I will admit, I had mixed feelings as I was listening to the conversation.  I totally get the concept that everything worthwhile in life is hard.  We have all heard, “nothing worth having comes easy.”  And every decision we make has tradeoffs.  So, it’s true, we have to choose our hard.  Where I had mixed emotions is it seems like we sometimes face hard things that we don’t choose, and we can’t control.  Maybe it’s a car accident.  Or maybe a devastating weather event like a tornado or a flood or a hurricane.

The more I thought about it, I do think there is something to this “choose your hard” concept.  However, I think there is a little more to it than the discussion I heard on the radio.

First, there is A LOT in life that we can control.

Even though we can’t control everything, our daily decisions have a HUGE impact on our future outcomes.  For example, for anyone who has been married, yes it can be hard.  Everyone has opinions on what makes for a good long-lasting marriage, and one consistent advice will always be “good open communication.”

Scott and I will have been married 28 years this year, and we can tell you it takes work and requires each person to actively listen to their partner and be willing to embrace difficult conversations.  But it is within our control.  We can choose to deal with the “hard,” or we can choose to take the easy path and ignore it.  Unfortunately, the “easy now” decision often causes things to come crashing down in the future.  It’s not a matter of if, but when.

Think about all the other things you have control over in your life:

• What you eat
• When you go to bed and when you wake up
• How much money you spend and how much you save
• How much you exercise and move your body
• How often you tell your loved ones how much you love them
• How much time you spend praying and resting your mind
• Whether you look at your phone while driving

Obviously, we could go on and on.  The point is we really do have control of SO MUCH in our lives.  So, it’s true, “choose your hard” really is a relevant concept.

Discipline vs Regret

Another way to help you “choose your hard” is thinking about the pain of discipline now vs. the pain of regret in the future.

Let’s take finances.  Even though in may be hard, applying discipline to spending and saving money now can help you achieve a comfortable financial position in the future.  On the other hand, lack of discipline today can lead to a constant stress of living paycheck to paycheck.  When unexpected expenses arise, the regret of not saving more (the other “hard”) can feel even more overwhelming than the discipline required to save in your earlier years.

The same is true with our eating habits.

Applying discipline in what you eat every day (especially if your discipline is to Eat REAL Food) can help you achieve and maintain health and vitality as you get older.

On the flip side, lack of discipline today will increase your risk of getting sick or experiencing a variety of life-altering health conditions (heart disease, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, or cancer, just to name a few).  These conditions that feel like they are never going to end are way worse than the “sacrifice” to have a disciplined eating approach today.  There is a book we love called “The Slight Edge” that talks about the concept of compounding and says, “it is not the one junk-food meal; it is the thousands, over time.”  It also says, “This concept is the same with your health, your diet, your exercise, your financial habits, your marriage, your spiritual health.  With anything and everything.”

Not all “hards” are the same!

We often hear people say, “Eating healthy feels too hard.”  We also hear people say, “Feeling sick all the time is just so hard.”

This is where someone might give up and say “well, they’re both equally as hard so I’m just going to eat whatever I want!”

But hold on, these two “hards” actually are very different!

For someone who is eating the Standard American Diet (including a lot of processed and junk foods), the idea of eating healthy feels hard.  They are faced with having to plan differently, shop differently, cook differently, and eat foods they aren’t used to eating.  Plus, dealing with sugar and salt cravings that seem to never end and peer pressure from family and friends who are eating the junk foods and fast foods.  For a few weeks, there can even be moments of discomfort in their digestive system as their gut microbiome retrains itself.  However…things can change quickly!

In as quick as one week or two, eating healthier starts to get easier.  Cravings start to change.  The planning, shopping, and cooking get easier.  Muscle memory kicks in and it starts to become second nature.  I just heard someone say yesterday, “Now that I have these ingredients on hand to make overnight oats, it’s becoming so much easier!”  After a while, it becomes a part of their everyday lifestyle, and they wish they would have done it sooner.  The “hard” gets easy – even enjoyable!

On the flip side, for someone who says, “I’m just going to eat whatever I want,” the hard will actually get harder.  Especially with chronic conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and cancer, it doesn’t get easier.  The constant medications and side effects, the pain and mobility issues, and feelings of “I just want to feel normal again,” get even more and more challenging.  In this case, the “hard” gets harder.

Understanding how each “hard” can affect your life over the long run can really help you to “choose your hard.”

You know we are big believers in making the “hard” decisions to get out of our comfort zones and discover where the magic happens!

We have experienced this firsthand in all areas of our lives.  Every time we chose the “hard” thing that pushed us out of our comfort zones, we experienced growth which gave us the confidence to do more “hard” things.

Not everything turns out the way we envision it.  But we don’t regret any of those “hard” decisions, as we learn something valuable every single time!

Our most recent “hard” has been working on a new video program.  We have boiled down everything you need to know to eat healthy and thrive and it all fits onto a napkin!  Yes, a napkin!

Has it been hard?  YES – especially the technology!  Will it be worth it?  YES – if we can help just even one person, it will absolutely be worth it!

Stay tuned for more details!  And feel free to guess what is on the napkin!

We would love to hear from you about this “choose your hard” concept.

And what do you do to you make your “hard” easy?!