We’ve all heard our favorite influencers repeat the moniker, “Easy times create weak men, weak men create difficult times” or some iteration of it on social media. People like Wim Hof and David Goggins have built entire careers around the core of this truth.
There’s nothing quite as gratifying as pushing yourself through those psychological barriers, beyond your perceived limits. Very quickly you learn how much your own mind limits your potential. Making a habit of doing difficult things in your life will not only make legitimately tough times seem easier but it will also eliminate many of the fears that make us vulnerable in life.
Following this practice of doing difficult tasks will allow you to achieve things that you might have never imagined. Living life this way leaves you with a deep sense of satisfaction that is otherwise largely absent from our modern world. We can all do so much more than we think we can.
My father raised my brother and I to do difficult things on a regular basis. Dad took us on ten mile hikes, twenty mile bike rides, and all kinds of other extreme activities before we were even teenagers. After the first few times it began to feel normal and before long the challenges became something that we actually craved. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thanked my father for raising us with this mindset.
There’s no denying that a good swath of humanity has lived in relatively “easy times” for the past half-century and you can see evidence of it everywhere. This is why this video by the YouTuber’s Kara and Nate filled me with hope and excitement when I watched it.
The video also was a spark that lit a fire within me. About a dozen or so minutes into watching Kara and Nate tackle walking 50km a day I looked at my wife and said, “I’m doing this!”. So began the process of me spelunking into yet another rabbit hole…De 4Daagse (or The 4 Days Marches in English). Thanks Kara and Nate!
Just yesterday I received my 4Daagse registration number so it’s starting to feel more real.
Walking 50 kilometers per day for four days straight. I have no doubt this is something I can accomplish with the proper preparation and training. I’ll have until July of 2025 to prepare what will then be my future 54 year old body. Thankfully, I found this invaluable training advice on the interwebs.
In the above mentioned article I found snippets like – “During the 4 Days March, I burned around 8,500 calories a day. During my training, I burned around 5,000 calories a day” and “....get good at popping your own blisters so you don’t have to wait in line at the medical stations.” that made me seriously question the wisdom of this particular life choice.
A lot of things in my universe will have to align for me to be able to travel to The Netherlands and go and accomplish this next July but I will start training as if it will definitely happen. I’ve even bought the shoes I’ll be wearing. Putting this idea out into the universe via this blog post feels like a huge step in the right direction.
Has anyone reading this participated in The 4 Marches or plan on trying it in 2025? If so, I'd love to hear from you.
What was the last difficult thing you accomplished? How did it make you feel?
Be well and make the most of this day. Thank you for reading!
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