With my recent ultramarathon, my wife took this short video of me when I was at my lowest moment at mile 16. I was tired, grumpy, and thinking about quitting.
What did you hear?
It’s a little faint, but I say “This fucking sucks, but I’m pushing through it.”
When I was recently talking to a friend, Mau, about creating my first triathlon training plans, he asked me how it was going. The truth is that I was really frustrated with the whole process after spending 3-4 hours on a Sunday night trying to create something for a friend preparing for his first 70.3 Ironman. After all of that time invested, I ended up with something that I wouldn’t even use for myself.
“Man, I’m struggling through it right now. I spent a lot of time on it and got super frustrated, but I’m moving forward.”
He responded with something like, “Wow, I really like that you used the phrase struggling through it.”
And that’s where it clicked for me.
I didn’t just say “I’m struggling”, but I said that I was “struggling through it.”
I know that it’s subtle, but I think there’s a major difference between struggling and struggling through.
When I say that I’m “struggling” or “struggling with” something, I am focused on the pain or difficulty of a situation. However, when I say that I’m struggling through something, it means that I am learning, moving forward, and growing despite the struggle. Big difference!
The definition of “struggle through” from The Free Dictionary says that to struggle through means “to get through something in the best way possible.”
What a beautiful phrase!
Now next time you’re facing something difficult, think about if you are “struggling” or “struggling through” something.
And if you are in the struggle phrase, it’s time to make a slight shift to struggle through. To get there, ask yourself a few questions:
- “What’s going well?”
- “What am I learning?”
- “What will I do differently next time?”
Becoming the best version of yourself is a process that sometimes requires struggling through a situation.
What fitness or life challenges are you struggling through right now? Let me know by emailing me at hello.endurify@gmail.com or by joining our Instagram community.