It has been a week.

Sunday and Monday I was in Portland. Tuesday I was in Toledo. Weds and Thurs I was in St. Petersburg.

The latter two were professional. Portland was personal.

I was running The Gorge Waterfalls 50k.

My legs are still sore 🤪

Stretching before The Gorge Waterfalls 50k. Deep in thought.

I have a simple mindset that I use for races, dating all the way back to my earliest days of marathons and Ironmans.

I've found it's useful for almost ANY challenging or uncomfortable situation in life.

I say two things:

1. "This is going to be hard."
2. "I can handle hard."

I call this confident realism.

To me, one of the worst things you can do going into any situation - personally, professionally, athletically, or otherwise - is to have blind optimism. To envision or HOPE that something is going to be easy.

It almost never is.

And if you wanted easy but it ends up being hard, you're caught off guard. It's tough to put that genie back in the bottle.

Saying something is going to be hard also isn't pessimistic. Pessimism would be hard + I can't do anything about it.

In this case, hard = truthful, when you employ the essential second part:

Saying, "I can handle hard" is what psychologists call Self-Efficacy. You trust yourself because you've built receipts. Your confidence is based on evidence.

In case you're wondering, you've built the receipts. You've got the evidence. You just need to start looking for it 😉

Whatever situation, goal or ambition that's in front of you, this two-part mindset will serve you.

One other quick, important thing to note before signing off. I've seen this a lot before:

As you say to yourself, "This is going to be hard," make sure it doesn't cause dread, inaction or catastrophizing. If you find this is happening, it's probably because you're not anchoring in that you can handle hard with the speed or strength you need to.

Stay hard.

How do you like me now, David Goggins? 🤣

Keep Outperforming!