When Will This Get Easier?

One of my favorite childhood books is Holes. You know -- the treasure that Kissin' Kate Barlow buried under a lake that is no longer a lake because Sam the onion man was killed for a crime he didn't commit, and Stanley Yelnats goes to "camp" to dig holes all day to build character/find the buried loot.

It's a great book. One of the parts of the book is flashbacks to the original Elya Yelnats, who lived in Latvia. He wanted a fat pig to offer as a bride price for the prettiest girl in the village. An old woman (Madam Zeroni) in the village gives him a runty piglet and tells him to carry it up the mountain each day to drink from the stream. He is supposed to sing to the pig while it drinks.

He protests that there is no way he can carry a full-grown pig up the mountain. But the pig isn't full-grown yet, says Madam Zeroni. Each day, he will carry the pig, and each day the pig will be bigger and heavier, but he will be a little bit stronger.

I never stopped to think if carrying the pig up the mountain was hard for Elya. But, even though he could manage it, it must have been an exhausting thing to carry a pig up a mountain every single day. I just thought, a small piglet -- easy. But I usually struggle to get my own self up a mountain, so carrying anything makes it harder. And then the pig got, not only heavier, but larger, making it more awkward and challenging.

Even though Elya probably did get stronger, I doubt the daily grind of climbing that mountain with that pig ever actually got easier.

Sometimes, usually in the middle of a rowing sprint or assault bike team challenge or a set of burpees or box jumps, I think, "I can't wait until doing this is easier."

But, I've been doing "this" for eight months. I wished it was easier at the beginning, and I still wish it was easier now. I've been carrying the pig for long enough that it should be a piece of cake, right?

I am MUCH stronger. Doing a pushup is possible now. Burpees are more natural. Pull-ups are coming along. I can row longer. I can run faster. I can lift more weight.

But stronger doesn't mean easier. And it really shouldn't ever be your goal for things to get easy, not when you want to get better.

Hard work will never not suck in the moment. And that's something that beginners like me might not understand. When you look at a fitness veteran and think, wow, they make it look so easy -- just know they are probably feeling like they are dying. They are just as tempted to drop the pig as you are. You both give your maximum effort, and even though you might be carrying a piglet and they might be carrying a full-grown pig, you'll both be tired by the time you get to the stream.