Comfort is the enemy

I have lived a life of comfort. I rarely have experienced hunger I couldn't immediately satisfy. I have spent most of that life with climate controlled living.I have slept in a cushy bed under warm blankets. I have faced challenges, but there were not typically the type that caused me to exert myself regularly or to my limits. All of this has made me fat, soft, and complacent... like a Hindu cow.

Clearly, that cannot continue.

 

This type of living, the type I have chosen up to this point, will not make me the man I want to be. Over the past few years, I have noticed a change in my thinking. My mind is ravenous for challenge and conflict. It wants to overcome.  

 

Physically, I have found my challenge. Every chance I get I am training hiking up a steep trail at House Mountain. The trail is a 5.8 mile loop and climbs 2100 feet. It kicks my tail every time I go, but I love the hurt of it. I love that I breathe hard. I love the sweat. I love the pain during and thes soreness afterward. It is outside my comfort level. It also feels like I am training for something bigger. 

 

The motorcycle is also a challenge. I ride in the heat. I ride in the cold. I ride rain or shine (within reason of not dripping with water at work). That is a change from my carefully heated or air conditioned car. It is also a challenge being safe in traffic. I think my way through situations as much ahead of time if I can. I plan my routes smarter. I move through traffic to distance myself to a bubble of relative safety. Sometimes that is slowing down. Sometimes is speeding up. I love leaning deep into those curves and being more agile than most everything else on the road. It pushes me to improve my physical life so I can be faster, more balanced, and lighter on my feet... and tires. 

 

Mentally, I am a lot more cutthroat and savage than I have ever been before. Oddly enough, this isn't a change to my rather kind and honest nature. I am just a lot more assertive about what I want and what I want nothing at all to do with. I am no more abrasive than I ever was. I am just a lot less compromising. I don't make the sacrifice quietly inside myself. I push for what I want. I have found, all too often, it makes it a lot easier to get what I want. 

 

Sexually... well, this isn't that type of blog, is it?

 

My view of a successful life has really changed. A younger David always saw the future as financial comfort to the place of being able to only pursue the things I want. Now I see the friction of life as the motivation to get leaner, stronger, and to keep moving. I want to be a little uncomfortable to keep the fire burning in my belly.