How to Find Strength in the Struggle

"Where there is no struggle, there is no strength." ~ Oprah Winfrey

There's much to be learned from stepping outside your comfort zone to do things that are hard. I recently completed one such hard thing that involved my mountain bike, my husband, and the wide open spaces of the Scottish Highlands.

The trip was amazing, inspiring, fun... and challenging, and it taught me so much about how to find strength in the struggle.

In this short video I share a couple of key lessons I embraced in completing this crazy goal.

Watch the video below, or read the transcript that follows, and pay attention to where you can find strength in the struggle.

Hey, Michelle Cederberg here, out for a morning walk with Islay, contemplating, of all things, struggle. I have been back from my Scotland trip for just over a week, and if you weren't following me on my Instagram (@cederbergspeaks), part of that trip involved a four-day bike packing trip through the Highlands called The Badger Divide. 340 kilometers, over four days, and every day had over 1,200 meters of climbing. So, suffice it to say, it wasn't an easy journey.

Every day was 65, 80, 85, 105 kilometers. So, long days. We were in the saddle for over eight hours every day. And it was a struggle. But I will say this, I had the best time, and I'm looking back on it very nostalgically now. Every single day it rained, but the views were amazing. Every single day we had so much climbing that I was exhausted. But what I learned on this trip around this idea of struggle, (among the list of things that I learned), is that fortune favors the prepared, number one, and it's only hard until it's done, number two.

So, fortune favors the prepared means that I had done the training. I had been on my bike all summer long. We had done long rides. We had put in the hours, and I knew that I had the conditioning to get up and over every hill, and to deal with the conditions.

We also had great gear for the weather, for anything that we were expecting. And as hard as it was, I didn't have any point on any day where I thought, I'm not going to be able to do this. Some days it wasn't fun, but it doesn't have to be fun to be fun.

Fortune favors the prepared became my mantra because I knew that even when it felt hard, that I could do it.

The second learning, 'it's only hard until it's done', to me, is the biggest gift because sometimes we do have to push outside our comfort zone to do those things that scare us just a little bit, to do those things that feel like a stretch, knowing deep down that it might be hard, but that we can do it.

For me, at the end of it, at the end of every single day, I was really proud of myself and really glad for the experience of doing this with my husband.

He's from Scotland, so it meant a lot to do a Highlands adventure with him, to meet people along the way, and to just have a really rewarding experience together. At the end of the four days, as hard as it was, we were just so thrilled. Now we're thinking about what our next challenge will be.

That is the beauty of it's only hard until it's done. We proved to ourselves that we're capable of doing things that were at some point unbelievable...and a bit scary. Now we're starting to dream up the next challenge, which may be bigger, but won't seem quite so unreachable.

If you're setting yourself up to chase a goal that's scary, what do you need to do to ensure your success? How will you prepare?

And keep the mantra of it's only hard until it's done in your mind because the doing may be tough, but the rewards are really worth it. Have a great week.

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Michelle Cederberg, Health and Productivity Expert, MKin, BA Psyc, CEP, CPCC Hall of Fame Speaker, CSP, Certified Coach & Best-Selling Author

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