There are plenty of things that we dread doing at the outset, but later end up being grateful we did them:
Preparing for a marathon.
Getting a new degree.
Switching careers.
This is the wisdom of hindsight — we generally only fully appreciate this phenomenon looking back.
I’ve come up with a new motto to leverage this wisdom: do one hard thing ever day.
Many, including myself, have homeostatic tendencies: we follow routine, we do what we’re comfortable with.
The purpose of a directive like do one hard thing every day is to force oneself to step away from routine and in the process develop a mindset of pursuing challenge.
You may not like doing one hard thing every day at first but, if wisdom prevails, you’ll be very glad that you challenged yourself in the end.
This is the fundamentals of stoicism and the anti-fragility idea. I love it.