Have you ever sprinted all out till you started feeling nauseated? If you’ve ever run in a track competition, you probably know what it feels like.
It doesn’t feel good.
It feels like your stomach is going to implode from the lack of oxygen. You can’t breathe fast enough to catch up for a few seconds.
Then the endorphins start rushing in. For the next thirty minutes or so you feel slightly superhuman from the endorphin rush. It’s a natural high.
Is there anything in your life you care about so much, that you would be willing to sprint that hard in order to make it happen?
If not, you are dangerously close to being dead.
What I mean by “dead” in this context is that you haven’t recently been tapping into the deepest well of life energy available to mankind.
I’m talking about meaning.
Oh yes, there are things that are meaningful to you, but you haven’t been thinking about them as something to go after with all your might.
You’ve probably been focusing most of your mental energy (without consciously intending to do so) on trying to avoid discomfort.
That makes you weak.
Sorry if this offends you (sort of). I’m trying to kick you hard enough to get you mad. I figure you’ll get up and throw some punches.
Maybe we’ll get into it with enough intensity to get a bit of that adrenaline rush going for you. If I can succeed with that, I’ll credit myself with having saved your life.
A lack of effortful pursuit of things with deep meaning is a slow and agonizing death.
You see, for some people, life has become too easy. An easy life can be a disease. It gradually weakens you and makes you vulnerable to real stress.
Cheetahs die early in captivity, unless you buy them a big enough piece of land to really stretch their legs in all out sprints.
Humans die early unless they oscillate between relaxation and the pursuit of meaningful goals that are difficult to reach. We need to be chasing after something we care about in order to thrive.
The key is to chase after things on your own terms instead of waiting until life throws stress at you.
By pushing yourself hard when you don’t have to, you feel in control of your life and that actually lowers the bad form of stress, the kind that kills us slowly by contributing to everything from heart disease to depression.
Psychologists have found that if you expose people or animals to stress, the negative effects of that stress can be eliminated by a feeling of control.
If I push myself in any area of life, it builds my resilience to stress, but it also builds a buffer zone by creating room to breathe.
If I push myself to work twelve hours instead of eight, just one day a week, then I am better prepared for a layoff. Why? Because I not only made more money by working those extra hours (the buffer zone), but I also made myself more fit for working hard to find my next job.
If my friend Lisa eats oatmeal instead of whatever high sugar, high fat foods she likes, she is better prepared for a break-up with her boyfriend.
Why? Because if she chooses to regulate her mood a little bit by splurging on some ice cream, it actually has an effect vs. the lifestyle where you are so used to it that it doesn’t seem special.
But she also created a buffer zone (a fit body that makes it easier to find a new boyfriend).
Both of these examples involve the use of accommodation. We accommodate to things like oatmeal or long hours, especially if we set our minds to do so.
When you accommodate to difficult stuff, you become a stronger human being.
Here’s my challenge to you. Analyze your life to find one or two things you really care about.
Identify ways of doing “sprints” so to speak on an intermittent basis.
Try to adopt a mentality of welcoming excitement (instead of aversion) toward the winded rush of pain (physical, mental, or emotional) when you hit your goals hard.
Don’t worry, you’ll accommodate, and then you will be stronger.
The best part is, you’ll be tapping into that deep well of happiness and energy that comes from the all-out pursuit of the things you most want in your life.
Now go do it.
Dr. Todd Snyder
