What is the "Gym of Life"?

So yeah, I've kind of been on a tear about budgeting recently because, as I've continued to explore coaching (financial and otherwise), I keep revisiting my core belief that a budget is the best tool a woman can have for economic survival (and "thrival") as well as increased self-confidence.

As I continue to develop my brand, I'm going to step back this week from talking about budgeting to discuss something else: the gym of life (which does and doesn't not have anything to do with money. Allow me to explain).

We often don’t like it, but there is tremendous value in difficulty and adversity. I like neither concepts at face value, but having gone through bouts of them (i.e., losing my parents, ending an engagement, getting laid off several times, etc), I can say that these instances have given me a deeper, more nuanced view of life…

…because they have caused me to grow.

And, let's face it, we don't always like to grow. Because growth can be painful and uncertain.

In fact, our brains usually point us in the direction of conserving as many calories as possible to not grow.

Why do anything difficult, anyway, when comfort is the ruling dictum? In fact, we've built a whole culture around catering towards the path of least resistance. I’m not saying that we should all pillage and plunder and fight in the wilderness for scraps of food like our ancestors, but when we constantly take this path, it leaves us (and our planet) with dire health and environmental consequences.

So, what's one to do in the face of all this easy?

Do reps.

Yeah, you heard me.

You want to train yourself to do the difficult things that go against the grain. You want to rise up against the culture of over-easy. You want to push through the resistance as much as possible whenever you can.

Now, this could look like many different things for many different people. If we want to talk about money and finances, it could be practicing how to do your very first budget OR setting a savings goal and hitting that. If we want to talk about something non-financial, this could look like getting on a weight-loss plan or prepping meals at home. You want to get in the habit of doing the things that are supremely un-fun because when life happens, you'll be prepared.

Because life WILL happen.

I call this the 'gym of life' because you want to train yourself appropriately on your terms before life gets to you on its terms. Practicing and confronting resistance multiple times will have prepared you mentally (and circumstantially) in a way that someone who hasn't won't.

If you think about it, there's an economics to this - you're saving yourself greater pain later because you're doing the uncomfortable things now.

Training in the gym of life is just choosing your hard.