Love the Love of the Process

I'm laying here on the couch with a bag of ice on each knee, a heating pad on my back, a full bottle of water, and my phone. 

Before I settled on the couch, I had an Epsom salt bath, and then headed to the kitchen where I ground and prepared the amount of coffee that I’ll need for tomorrow morning. I got out Gatorade powder, creatine, beta-alanine and put it on the counter next to the water bottle that it'll go in. And I filled the tea kettle halfway with water so in the morning all I have to do is press the power button. 

Today is Day 10 of my Embrace the Suck challenge — a month-long physical and mental challenge to do the same workout, the hardest workout I’ve ever done, every day for the entire month. No rest days and 5-miles, 100 repetitions of 100kg (220 lbs), and 100 pushups. It really does suck and I’m loving it.

It's 8:40 in the evening and I need to be up at 5:00 a.m. in order to complete my workout, stretch, and share up some social media posts about the challenge.

These rituals of preparation and self-discipline have made me remember something: this is what I loved about sport. 

I loved that every single little thing made a difference. I loved the process of getting better—all of it. 

And I still love it.

I love that taking the time to take an Epsom salt bath will give me a better chance of recovering in the morning. 

I love that everything I’ve done to prepare tonight has one clear purpose: being ready to continue the challenge tomorrow. 

And everything that I do until I'm done at 7:30 a.m. will be in service of that one goal: to be able to make it through tomorrow's workout. The same goal that a small group of people are chasing, too. Except this time, there can be as many winners as possible, and if you don't make it, you don't lose, you just tried. 

I love that I've been doing this for 10 days in a row, and I love that I get to do it for 18 more days. 

And you know what? 

I love that I love that feeling. 

I find it so joyful to find happiness in doing things that make me better.

I don't know where I learned that, or if it’s genetic, or what. I have no idea why I’m like this. But I guess what I don't understand even more, is why more people don’t feel the same way. Or at least not to such an extreme. It seems like a pretty wonderful way to go through life, at least to me.

At this point in my life, I appreciate getting to be one of the lucky ones who takes so much pleasure in the process of getting better. 

I'm just figuring out that love for the process of self-betterment is what has driven me ever since I finished sport. 

Sport allowed me to selfishly pursue a singular goal. It took me a handful of years to transition out of that, but the experience gave me a perspective I’ve been able to bring to other things. 

That love of the process, of putting in the work to get better and better? That's what Classroom Champions has been about. In fact, most of the things I’ve done since getting out of sport have been about that. 

How great would it be if we could teach kids (and adults) to be able to find that kind of joy in making themselves better at whatever they wanted? 

Imagine a world full of kids and then teenagers and then adults filled with joy at getting better, and learning about how to get better, and then putting it into action. 

Wouldn't that make the world a better place? 

That's, I guess, what I want for everyone. 

So that’s why I do what I do. Sometimes it feels kind of unfair that I got to reach my ultimate goal and that I am one of the few that actually gets to do that. But I think everyone else should at least be able to find the joy in getting better, even if they don't ever reach their goal. 

Because I always enjoy the journey more. And I love that I love that part of it all.

If you’re reading this, you probably enjoy it too. Thanks for being here, I look forward to being on this journey with you. 

- Steve