Why you should do hard stuff

Doing hard stuff doesn’t sound very fun. But I personally don’t believe hard and fun have to be mutually exclusive.

In my last post, I made the cold mountain stream analogy. Imagine yourself on your death bed right now. As you reflect on the life you lived, did you jump in the cold mountain streams? Or did you watch from the bank while others did?

I used to avoid exercise at all costs. Then I decided I would fight through it. After the initial soreness of a “breaking in” period I got addicted. I love it now. It’s exhilarating, and there’s a great feeling I get after I run. I get a great sense of accomplishment.

How would you feel if you took a week off of work and sat in front of the TV? How would you reflect on that week on your deathbed?

How would you feel is you took a week off of work and did crazy and memorable things everyday that week? How’s that reflection look from your deathbed?

Take on challenges and get out of your comfort zone. You’ll often find that:

A) It wasn’t really that scary or hard after all
B) The reward is great

Turn off reality TV and do something scary!

How to do awesome stuff, even if it’s hard

I like analogies, so I’ll break this one down into a story. It’s a story that you can relate to though: Have you ever jumped into a really cold stream? Or swimming pool? You knew you were about to freeze your ass off, so you hesitated. You stick one toe in, then pull back. Maybe, just maybe, you got all the way into your knees, then got back out again.

Have you ever successfully submerged in cold water by going slowly?

Or did you just… jump.

Have you ever regretted jumping in the cold water, once you’d gotten used to it?

Or did the rush make you feel alive, screaming and yelling?

You probably do what I did when I jumped into that New Zealand mountain stream (when the analogy hit me)… you count to 3 and then jump.

If you’re with friends you probably stall by asking “Wait… are we going on 3, or 1,2,3 and THEN jump?”

I’m not saying don’t look before you leap. The look is very important. If you want to start your own business or travel to New Zealand for a year or get married you need to do the research. I spent a year getting ready to live in New Zealand.

But my 1,2,3 jump moment was buying a non-refundable plane ticket. That was my three-count.

Thoughts?

Freedom

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."

-George Bernard Shaw

Crazy video (Part 2)

Thanks to Scott Lepp for posting this on my facebook page. It's another video with a similar theme of how fast the world is changing... check it out and leave some comments!

This is crazy-- watch this video

great, just great... I'm behind on technology and it's only going to get worse.

seriously, this video is fascinating.

Nelson's First Ever Blog Post

I'm what they call a "late adopter" in the marketing world. Think opposite of cutting edge when it comes to technology. Who starts a blog in 2008? I'm pretty sure my grandma has been blogging for the better part of a decade.

I also don't have cable, so feel free to leave a comment about how Amish I am.

A few people have told me I should write a book. Well, that's a little daunting, so I thought I'd start small and if people start to care about my blog then I'll work on a book.

Now I'm going to click on "publish" and see how it goes...