24 Comments

Great post Michael. I suggest that besides really tough single challenges, such as your hunting trip or burning the ships, consistency/discipline can be the toughest challenge of all, be it the 10,000 steps/day, the weekly three days at the gym, or getting your daily intake of protein.

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Happy New Year everyone!

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Ok I’m thinking of doing a 10K Spartan Trail race in May. Thankfully they break it down by age and Inhave zero expectations on not being dead last but I think I’m gonna do it :)

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I have done a few mountain bike races where I was very close to finishing last, but my goal was just to finish the race and that alone was achievable enough for me. Good luck!

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Yep I just want to finish.

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Great post, great reminder of why I started with the 2% mentality after reading The Comfort Crisis, completely changed my perspective. Excited for the January Challenge. Happy New Year everyone!

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Happy New Year! I clicked on the first challenge and immediately got kicked out of Substack. Happened as well yesterday trying to access one of your articles. Curious if anyone else has this issue?

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I’m also unable to access.🙃

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I got in by clicking on the Chat link on 2 0/0 homepage.

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Same. Substack is regularly locking up on me and then just choosing not to load pages.

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It’s always asking me to sign back in unless I go directly through the Substack app/webpage. Annoying!

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Doing hard things stretches our current capabilities and sets a new baseline. It’s good for the brain, muscles and nervous system. Please see the attached article by Mark Rippetoe as this topic applies to powerlifting: https://startingstrength.com/article/training_vs_exercise

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Great article Grant. Thanks for posting it.

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Love this! One of the reasons I picked up krav maga is it's super physical and it's draining. So one hour a week I go in and get ragdolled while ragdolling other dads my age. It's glorious even though it scared the shit out of me at first.

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Ideas for hard things for kids? Mine are adopted from foster care and the oldest (8) especially had a lot of trauma that has resulted in a lack of confidence. He did overnight camp for a few days last year which I think helped, but is obviously not always available. I’d love to know what other people think or maybe a future post? I’m thinking things like family hikes and ???

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You can cook a meal together, bake together, build a relatively difficult LEGO set together, do a household and/or neighborhood cleanup project together and on and on. Bottom line, kids love to feel useful, so anything they can do to help out will slowly increase their confidence!

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GREAT ideas!!

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Everything William says. I’ll also add that rucking with my son has been helpful (he’s now 12). In his backpack we’d stash our water bottles and I’d let him pick the route/neighborhood so he could feel like we were exploring. Plus it’s a great way to talk (or listen)!

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Thank you both!!

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Getting back on my MTB…looking forward to new challenges this year.

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I am signed up for two races this spring and am doing both of them with my 17 year old son, so no backing out for me. Now I have accountability to back up what I plan to do!

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My racing days a long gone…I am 62. But I still love to MTB!

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I am 58, so not too far behind you. Interestingly enough, at these mtb races here in Oregon, the 50-59 male categories have some of the highest number of entrants!

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Will do my best in the January Challenge 🏃🏾‍♀️‍➡️

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