"The only easy day was yesterday." The Navy SEALS mantra was in the forefront of my mind as the black van drove up in front of the hotel. It was 7:00 in the morning when we piled in and headed for the black site where our day of training would begin.
I partner with Pray.com for my Daily Devotions with Rick McDaniel program and my Point of Impact podcast. We had an event the night before in San Diego and they arranged for us to spend the next day training with the Navy SEALS.
When we arrived at the site there was a small building. As we entered, I looked around and on one wall was a sign that read "We don’t call 911," on another wall there was a picture with a quote, "Don’t run because then you’ll just die tired."
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At the front there was a plaque with SEAL team patches, the Trident and the Navy SEAL ethos. One part of the ethos really stood out, "I persevere and thrive on adversity. My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies."
This would be a day of designed adversity. I would be required to do things I’ve never done or don’t normally do. In just one day of SEAL (sea, air and land) training we wouldn’t do the sea, but we would do the land and air.
And it started in the air with a helicopter and a gun. The door was open as we took flight, though I was belted in. The copter ascended and then was holding steady but certainly not still. And I was to shoot at targets hundreds of yards away. Not easy to do successfully and definitely not if you have a fear of heights.
We moved to the land and the shooting range. When I was handed a Daniel Defense 5.56 rifle, they told me it had a pretty good kick. It turns out that is true. What made it really challenging was when we were to run and shoot. My accuracy took a real hit then.
Now it was time to jump out of an airplane. Getting crammed into a small plane and flying up to 13,000 feet was tough enough. But then it came time to jump out of a perfectly good airplane and plummet down at 125 miles per hour. Not for the faint of heart.
On that day I learned this powerful lesson "Embrace the Hard." To grow we must do hard things. We can run away from it, or we can embrace it. Everything worth doing in life is hard and the harder it is the more it is worth doing.
We will face hard things. To have the difficult conversation at home, to do the tough workout at the gym, to tackle the challenging project at work. But hard is good, hard is growth, hard is gain.
The Navy SEAL training was hard. But I’ve embraced hard before. I founded a church with twenty-five people and $2000. Twice I’ve fasted for twenty days drinking only water. Three times I graduated from college after years of study. And I’ve done the arduous work of writing a book nine times.
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Doing things when you don’t want to, when you don’t feel like it, is good for you. We need to do the hard. It opens up opportunities, it expands our horizons, it develops us. Overcoming hard is empowering.
Becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable will serve us well. Accepting discomfort prepares us for the truly tough times. Pushing yourself to do what you don’t like is always better than running from it. Whether that is going to the dentist or sticking to a budget.
It’s a battle to be healthy when there are donuts and ice cream calling your name. It’s a fight keeping your marriage and family strong when so many forces try to sabotage it. It's hard to stay positive when there is so much pessimism and negativity.
But it's worth it. You don't give up when it gets hard. You embrace it.
And then you receive the rewards that continually come from accomplishing hard stuff.
