Thankfulness: 75 Hard Day Complete

09/26/21 • 9 min

Yesterday I completed another 75 Hard.

I am very grateful to have finished and run the race. Did I accomplish all my goals... that’s a big NO! Do I wish I had accomplished all my goals? Of couse!

I did accomplish my biggest goal. I feel and think I’ve become a better person. I read three books, worked out every day and pushed more weight than the month before, and went faster than the month before.

I wanted to lose some weight and a couple of inches on the gut and chest while I was at it. No such luck.

In the last couple of days of challenge, I was feeling like a failure because I had worked for 75 days straight and felt like I sacrificed a lot to get some weight to drop off. I felt like life was kicking me in the face again and felt depression setting in.

It’s really easy to go down a dark path when you let your self-talk tell you about all your failures and again and again. I wouldn’t let anyone in the world talk to me in that way, but I let myself tell me how worthless I was.

I was able to turn it around with a little thankfulness. At the beginning of last week, we finally had the first day of fall here in South Texas. We know fall is coming when we finally have a cool feeling moring.

If you don’t live here, it’s hard to explain. During the summer it never cools down. It’s always hot. Even right before down and in the middle of the night, it still feels hot. It just doesn’t feel as hot. We all look forward to that first morning when you walk outside and feels cool. We normally wait for three to for months, but sometimes it is as long as six months.

This first morning doesn’t mean the heat is gone for the year, it just means that it will start getting better.

That first morning, feeling like shit, a failure, and idiot, I walked outside to go to work and felt the cool morning. It was glorious.

I walked out into the middle of my street and stood there for about five minutes just enjoying the morning cool breeze. Just thankful for everything. I posted it on Instagram (@BenBranam) and looked at some of my pictures. I have a great life. No, I don’t have everything I want, but I have everything I need. And I get to do some pretty amazing things with some awesome people!

From this 75 Hard I learned one thing. I struggled for 75 days of not missing a workout, not eating one sweat thing, reading every day 10 pages, and drinking a gallon of water.

I did it to learn one painfully obvious less:

BE THANKFUL FOR WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU HAVE!

One of the most simple things ever.

I am probably just dense as it takes me learning the hard way to truly get life lessons. Are you like that?

I’m determined to remember this one and to practice every day.

I have a great job. I have great friends. I have a great family. I am a good person. I have a great life!

Most of the time I forget this. I ignore my good friends and let those that are “friends” be vampires and suck away my time and energy.

I complain and focus on the bad parts of my job. No job is perfect, but I love most of it, like 90% of it, and like 90% of the people I work with. I sometimes focus on what I wish my family would do for me or with me, and that sucks the joy away from everything family.

Sometimes, I let myself go down a dark path and remind myself over and over again about all my failures, misses, and mistakes in life. Forgetting that I reached three out of five goals I set for myself.

And then, worst of all, I look at other peoples’ lives and how great it looks and judge their best days against my worst days and think about how crappy my life is. Not true at all. No matter how good or bad other peoples’ lives are, mine is still good or bad regardless of what they are doing.

I am thankful for you reading this. The world is a dumpster fire of uncertainty right now. We need everyone that can to become better. If you are reading this, I know that you want to be better. And you will.

My advice, be thankful for what you have, what you have achieved, and continue getting better and achieving more.

Ben Branam

The post Thankfulness: 75 Hard Day Complete appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

Yesterday I completed another 75 Hard.

I am very grateful to have finished and run the race. Did I accomplish all my goals... that’s a big NO! Do I wish I had accomplished all my goals? Of couse!

I wanted to lose some weight and a couple of inches on the gut and chest while I was at it. No such luck.

This first morning doesn’t mean the heat is gone for the year, it just means that it will start getting better.

That first morning, feeling like shit, a failure, and idiot, I walked outside to go to work and felt the cool morning. It was glorious.

From this 75 Hard I learned one thing. I struggled for 75 days of not missing a workout, not eating one sweat thing, reading every day 10 pages, and drinking a gallon of water.

I did it to learn one painfully obvious less:

BE THANKFUL FOR WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU HAVE!

One of the most simple things ever.

I am probably just dense as it takes me learning the hard way to truly get life lessons. Are you like that?

I’m determined to remember this one and to practice every day.

I have a great job. I have great friends. I have a great family. I am a good person. I have a great life!

Most of the time I forget this. I ignore my good friends and let those that are “friends” be vampires and suck away my time and energy.

My advice, be thankful for what you have, what you have achieved, and continue getting better and achieving more.

Ben Branam

The post Thankfulness: 75 Hard Day Complete appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

Previous Episode

Love and Admiration Towards Each Other

It’s what I remember after September 11, 2001, a love for others and an admiration for our country and those that were ready to protect us no matter the cost.

It’s been 20 years since the terrorist attacks on 9-11 and the world has changed considerably for the good and the bad.

The attacks were horrible. Thousands dying and more are trying to make it right.

Since then we’ve been at war. America has taken over two countries and killed tenfold what we lost that day or more. We’ve also lost more than the two thousand we lost that day.

After fighting for 20 years we now have warriors going into battle because of 9-11 that were not even alive when it happened.

If you were alive that day, you know what was going on and where you were (check out my story here). Share your story in the comments below.

I want you to remember how you felt the days and weeks after 9-11. How much you cared for other people and wanted to help any way you could. How much you admired and wanted to honor our heros’ trying to do work that they knew was impossible but couldn’t bring it up to those that were supporting them.

I want you to remember how close you felt to all the people around you, how we let petty differences go, and became one people for a couple of years. We all stood for what we thought was right. And we stood together.

We all wanted to be better so we could help all those in need. We wanted the country to be better so it could stop this from happening again. And we wanted to the world to be better so that no one would ever resort to such an act again.

Now, 20 years later, we’ve lost that unity of purpose. We have lost the desire to be better and help each other. We, as Americans, are lost. We have no direction.

I don’t know what direction is best for the country but I do know what direction is better for me and you... up. Become better at everything you do.

As a person, there is only one way to go, and that is up. You have to level up in life. The way to do that is by becoming more than you are right now. In short, become better.

You have to grow as a person. That’s how we make everything better. You become better and help the people around you become better, and soon we have a better world to leave for our children and our children’s children.

Stop buying into all the negative news in the world. These are simple problems to solve. Become better and learn to solve a problem. Help people with their problems and they will help you.

Then the world will be better. It all starts with you taking a look in the mirror and making a change.

Ben Branam

The post Love and Admiration Towards Each Other appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.

Next Episode

Make Your Life Better by Being Around People

I just got back from Amm-Con (Alternative Mass Media Convention). It is a conference for 2nd Amendment content and other content creators that are shunned by most big web brands and social media sights. I got to see a bunch of my friends that I haven’t seen in years. We live all over the country and get to talk to each other via Zoom like the rest of the world right now, but it isn’t the same.

I’ve been feeling in the dumps for the last couple of weeks. Job is stressing me out, the family wants more than I have to give, and I’m just not where I want to be in life. Any of that sound familiar?

For the last two weekends, I’ve been doing work for my other side hustle allowing me to be around groups of good people. And it’s made me feel much better.

Safety is always the thing nowadays because of the un-named virus (I don’t want to get blocked or get one of those “find the truth tags”).

I never knew how much I enjoyed being around other people until I wasn’t. Isn’t that how most things are?

We all have great things in life. Let’s face it, if you are reading this blog you are probably in the top 10% of financial earners in the world, and have the time, the equipment, and the desire to self actualize instead of running away from a tiger or just trying to grow food to feed yourself. A lot of great things in our lives are like air... we never notice it’s there until it’s gone.

Before the world shut down, I could go to conferences and be around other people I liked or not, and it didn’t seem to bother me if I went or not. Now, I realize how much I miss it and want to hang out longer with friends, have a drink, and break bread.

After doing that for two weekends in a row I’m feeling better and more ready to take on the world.

Find people you can be around to help recharge your battery: People that will keep you going. People that know and like you. Sometimes you should go where everyone knows your name (Cheers).

Get out and get around other people. I know you don’t feel like it (for a plethora of reasons), but like most things that are good for you, you don’t always feel like doing it. I don’t always “feel” like going to the gym, but am always better for it afterward.

Ben Branam

The post Make Your Life Better by Being Around People appeared first on 75 Hard Experience.