Wise words from former US President Theodore Roosevelt:

“Nothing in the world is worth having or doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… Never in my life have I envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied many people who led a difficult life and He led them well.”

These positive and wise words can unfortunately explain negative situations like “advanced aging” because advanced aging is often the result of giving up doing the hard things, especially with regard to our health.

In life, we are constantly tempted to take “the path of least resistance” because, well, it’s the easiest path and usually the quickest. But easy does not translate to better nor does it translate to growth. Easy translates to lazy. And, when it comes to our health, laziness translates to sickness and “advanced aging.”

An exchange of energy

Have you ever really gotten anything of lasting value in your life without some form of valuable/energetic/monetary exchange? Certainly nothing of lasting value comes free because everything is an exchange of energy.

When we put a little bit of energy into accomplishing or achieving something, the “little” value we receive matches up. But when we push the limits and challenge ourselves to do the hardest thing, to go beyond our current limits, our ROI grows exponentially.

There is no better example of this than lifting weights in the gym, one of the best things we can do to sculpt our bodies and strengthen our muscles. What is difficult today will not be after many repetitions. Enjoying the benefits of stronger muscles requires that we continually challenge ourselves by adding more weight.

There is no gain in life without some kind of stretch/pain. It’s called evolutionary growth and everything is humanEmotional, mental and physical challenges contain within them the greatest opportunity for growth.

Instead of avoiding the “hard stuff,” we need to see the “silver side” hidden within the hard stuff and stop running from a race we can never win.

Perceptions are key

Changing our perceptions is the starting point. Seeing challenges as opportunities for growth is the clear answer to facing fear and removing its paralyzing effects. Challenges increase our adrenaline and energy production and increase our heart rate, but not in the same way that a “fight or flight” response would.

Different hormones are released when we are faced with challenges; we are more focused and can access our mental and physical faculties more easily.

We have become weak as humans, literally and figuratively, because we “take the easy way out” too often. This explains the reasons why we are currently experiencing a global health crisis.

We want to be healthier, but it’s “too hard to lift weights or make time for the gym.”

We want to be healthier, but it’s too hard to let go of easy and unnecessary time-consuming things.

We want to be healthier, but it’s “too hard” to give up our destructive diet in favor of nutrient-dense foods.

We want to be healthier, but we don’t want to take the time to cook and prepare our own meals. It’s too hard and that’s why we opt for “fast foods”… (the only thing fast about fast foods is how quickly they destroy our health).

We want to be healthier, but we want it as a gift, not something we’ve earned through “hard work” and as a reward for adjusted lifestyles.

We want to be healthier without doing any “hard work”

Easy doesn’t push the envelope. Life is not set up to operate that way. Life is configured as a reward: a system of give and take. What you put in, you take out. It’s really that simple.

Most people miss the opportunity because he is dressed in overalls and it looks like work.

-Thomas A. Edison

Putting challenges aside and continuing to take the easy path sends very clear messages to our minds and bodies that we are satisfied with our lot in life. Life returns the same to us and instead of throwing open the door to new opportunities or healing us from the inside out, the process of sedentary decay begins.

The plain truth is that we are either moving forward by tackling the “hard stuff” or subtly moving in a negative direction by staying in our safety and comfort zone.

Success in anything is directly related to sacrifice. Sacrifice most often means giving up something in exchange for something else.

The “good” we all seek in life is cleverly wrapped up in a willingness to tackle the “hard things” rather than avoid the easy ones. Our current state of health is the perfect example and reason to start tackling the “hard stuff.”

It’s time we traded in our false delusions of “easy going” about being healthy for some “hard fixes” of real growth becauseWe cannot move forward or fully heal from any health crisis, personal or global, until we address the causes. If we have not focused and addressed the root causes, it is only a matter of time before another global health catastrophe cleverly disguised as a “different virus or disease” reappears.