5 lessons from 75 Hard that will change your life
At the start of December, my wife and I completed the 75 Hard challenge.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, here is a very quick overview:
It’s 75 days. On every single day, you have to read 10 pages of a non-fiction book (no audiobooks), workout twice for 45 minutes each and one has to be outdoors, follow a diet of your choice, drink a gallon of water, take a progress picture, and have no alcohol or cheat meals (including chocolate).
Individually the requirements aren’t too onerous, but the challenge comes from the fact they all need doing every single day — and if you miss any one of them, you start at day one again.
Fortunately, we completed it successfully on our first attempt. And along the way, I learned five important lessons:
- Our excuses are lies
This is probably the biggest takeaway of all. My personality is a hypocrite, caught in the opposing forces of striving to be better and making excuses for why I can’t do something.
“I don’t have time today.”
“I felt a twinge in my toe.”
“I just can’t today.”
I’ve been improving over the years and am far more equipped to squash these ambition-destroying excuses. But 75 Hard took it to the next level.
It probably goes without saying that of the requirements, the one that we both were most concerned about was doing 150 workouts. We each would do our own form of exercise during the day, and after work we’d go for a walk together.
In normal times, the smallest of things would prevent us from going for a walk. A stomach ache. The weather. Dinner will be late.
When exercise is just something you hope you’ll be able to do that day, even the smallest excuse is enough to derail you.
But because we committed to it, we didn’t miss a single one. We walked in the rain, we woke up early if we knew the day would be too busy, we scheduled it into our day.
In short, we removed the option of not doing it. It became something we had to do, and as such, it got done.
No excuses.
2. We’re capable of more than we think
“Who has time to workout twice a day, AND read, AND follow a diet, AND not have a drink?”
It turns out, we do.
75 Hard teaches us that we spend a lot of our time operating a mindset of choice. We do only the things that appeal most to us, and we can feel compelled to do at the precise moment it needs doing. It also teaches us that when we feel we haven’t got a way out, that there’s no alternative to getting it done, we do it.
3. We give into temptation way too easily
This has long been a shortcoming of mine. Ultimately, it’s a lack of discipline. I am a professional at giving into temptation and rationalising it to feel better about my decision.
One particular area of struggle is around chocolate. I’m a fiend for having a bar with lunch, or demolishing a pack of cookies after dinner.
I never overindulge, and am very capable of limiting myself to one bar or one serving. But I’m not good at skipping it entirely.
With this challenge, though, simply knowing that I wasn’t allowed chocolate bars completely eradicated my cravings for them. In fact, except for a few days around day 60 where I really wanted some cake, I didn’t think about or miss having the sweet treats at all.
4. We have more time than we think
Or, put another way, we waste a huge amount of time by drifting through our days.
With a little intentionality, we can be hugely productive.
During 75 Hard, I woke up most days between 5.30 and 6am, and went straight out to either walk the dog or run. Getting up was often hard work, but being outside was revitalising, and when I got back home I felt amazing. I realised the potency of winning the morning, getting that huge win accomplished to snowball into other wins, and feeling fantastic.
My routine was simple: wake up and go out. Get home, read my 10 pages over breakfast. I’d work from around 8am until 12, when I’d stop for lunch. I’d work again from 1pm until 2 or 3pm, when I’d do my main workout in our garage gym. This works really well for me because it energises me in that afternoon slump, turning an unproductive hour into one where I’m both accomplishing something and fired up to get more work done afterwards. Following that next stint of work, I’d often join my wife for a walk with the dogs.
Having a routine allows us to increase our productivity by a huge margin. Not only that, breaking up my work meant I got more done, and the output was a higher quality. We can’t realistically expect to produce our best work by starting at a screen for 8 hours.
Where’s the inspiration?
We need to get the blood flowing. We need to let our minds wander and get the creative juices flowing again.
Stop. Get up, stretch, read, walk, do push-ups, just leave your work station. When you sit down for your next task, you’ll feel renewed.
At the start of lockdown, we used to wake up and put the TV on. Watch a few episodes with coffee before work. Before the pandemic, we’d wake up and rush out the door for our commute. One of the gifts from 2020 is, for the first time, having time in the mornings. And 75 Hard forced us to address how we spend that time. I’m grateful for that, and even now that we’ve finished it, our morning routines have remained much the same.
The television doesn’t go on until lunchtime when I watch something while I eat. And in the evening, after I’ve planned out my next day, we can fully relax without feeling guilty or like we should be doing other things.
5. Small efforts really do compound
The prospect of reading 750 pages can be daunting, especially if you don’t read much.
That’s a very long book, or a few short ones. Considering that 24% of Americans say they’ve not read a book in the past year, that’s a lot of pages.
But 10 pages day? That doesn’t sound too bad at all. Most people would probably be able to do that with little resistance. After 75 days, well, you’ve reached that 750 pages that sounded so daunting.
The same is true for exercise. The thought of doing 150 separate forms of exercise is overwhelming — especially when it’s to be completed not in 300 or even 150 days, but in just 75.
Again, though, making the time to do something small each day yields tremendous achievements in a short space of time. Bite-sized chunks makes things so much easier and more achievable.
This demonstrates the power of consistency. Bear that in mind when you miss a day of your diet, workout, or next year’s resolutions. Don’t beat yourself up and give up, just get back to it the next day.
These 5 lessons could be distilled into one overarching lesson:
We are in control. We can change our lives. Winning each day is what creates the life we imagine.
