“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” — Proverbs 14:23
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The world knows him as not only the best to ever grace his sport, but the greatest Olympian of all time. Michael Phelps — winner of 28 Olympic medals, 23 of them gold — ruled the swimming pool for 20 years, setting records and statistics that may never been seen again. He has become the benchmark for success in his sport, as well as work ethic when it comes to consistency over a lengthy career that spanned five Olympic Games. In the 10 years since Phelps retired, he has been sought after as a motivational speaker and, at one such event a while back, he gave the audience a glimpse into the mindset that drove him to achieve what he did for so long.
“When you have a goal that’s important enough to you, nothing will stand in your way,” he said. “During the days where I didn’t want to go or I was tired, I was sore … I still went because if I’m going to go practice and I’m going to get 10%, 20%, 30% out of that day, it’s better than getting 0%. So I was always taking steps forward. I swam for over 20 years and I can guarantee you there was probably 100 days where I didn’t want to do anything. I wanted to stay in my bed and not get out. Those are the days where you have to … get up and do something because I think that’s what separates the good from the great. The greats do things when they don’t always want to do them.”
Studies are beginning to show that our society has a problem with discomfort. We’ve become so accustomed to having things tailored to our exact preferences and to eliminating any type of uncomfortable feeling that our threshold for resilience is increasingly lowering. The ability the average person has to endure and do hard things today compared to previous centuries is surprisingly less. This means that, in order for us to reach the formative place the apostle Paul talked about — where our suffering produces patience, our patience strengthens our character, and our character brings about hope (Romans 5:3-5) — then we need to grow in our ability to befriend discomfort as an aid in our development.
Phelps, and other super athletes like him, understand the value in pushing yourself beyond your limitations and making yourself do hard things, even (and especially!) when you don’t want to do them. It’s those moments when your mind takes over and wills the rest of you to get out of your comfort zone and do the next right thing instead of coming up with a million excuses.
Jesus didn’t promise us a comfortable life. In fact, He actually promised us that we would have trouble (John 16:33). He didn’t experience the resurrection without the pain of the cross, so neither should we expect to get a pain-free pass either. But the promise that gives us reason to do hard things? “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).
So on those hard days when you don’t want to get those extra reps in, or push yourself that little bit or get that project across the finish line or even just get out of bed and face your day, remember that these are the moments that determine who and what you’ll become.
— Katherine Singer
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