Based on Ali Abdaal’s (youtuber) recommendation, I recently read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. Donald is approached to have a movie made about his life, however he realizes his life makes for a lame story. He realizes most people are living a lame story.
The book states that every interesting story requires adversity and challenge. It wouldn’t be as exciting if Frodo strolled down to Mordor and threw the ring into the fire with no questions asked. Characters need to overcome adversity for a story to have meaning. But something must first happen which pushes the character to action and face challenges. In the case of Frodo this push happened to be a grey wizard turning up at his door.
Today we are fortunate enough to live comfortable lives. However, this comfort often means there isn’t anything pushing us to challenge ourselves. Instead we are satisfied with spending our days sitting in front of the The Glass Teat. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Teat). No wizard is going to turn up at the door to our hobbit hole and save us. Instead we need to push ourselves to action and be willing to challenge ourselves.
During covid I have gotten quite comfortable. (This is a privilege that I am lucky to have). I spend my time skiing, watching lectures at 2x speed (to make time for skiing) and reading books. Physical challenges are a straightforward way to push oneself. Donald hikes the Inca trail and cycles across America to make his story more interesting.
To make my story more interesting I have recruited two friends to take on David Goggins 4x4x48 challenge (https://www.gogginschallenge.com). This challenge involves running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours for a total of 48 hours. It is both a physical and mental test.
Signing up for this challenge has given me the opportunity to push myself and get better. I have been running in -30 weather to train, something that I would not have done if I hadn’t made the decision to sign up. It has given my life more meaning as we will be raising money for Kid Sport, an organization which subsidizes sports fees for kids who otherwise would not be able to play sports.
If would like to you can support us here:
How can you live a more interesting story?
– Mitch