ON DOING HARD THINGS.

April flowers bring snow showers. It is finally starting to feel like spring. Being out in the weather, regardless of the weather. And I think I found the key to life.

I’m catching up on notes from my journal. It’s been a week of motion with another week to go. Colorado. Utah. Idaho. Montana. Soon back to Idaho. Back to Utah. Eventually back to Montana. A lot of motion. Not a lot of time for writing. Sorry for the lapse, but here we are.

It’s an overcast morning following an overnight rain. The valley is one big cloud of heavy gray dripping with green. The wet of spring green is lush right now. Leaves are thriving. The larch in the front yard is happy, bursting fresh summer needles. The garden bed I weeded this last week was sad with winter strawberries but is suddenly vibrant with erect leaves, happy about spring. The ground and tree buds are exploding in slow motion. With warmer temps, cleared weeds, wet and sun. The birds are plucking earthworms from the yard. We have two robin families making home of our porches, one in the front, one in the back. The sound of the creek fills the valley, only overcome by the occasional distant and lonely sound of the train passing through the mouth of the valley a few miles south.

Spring is a good time for sitting outside with coffee. Todays thoughts drift towards expectations we have for the things we do, and the words we apply to ourselves. Descriptions. How would you describe yourself to a stranger. Beyond just what you do to live. What makes life truly life? Everyone on the planet has to do work they’d rather not do in order to sustain, but beyond that… What is you do just for the sake of doing?

People often associate the term “athlete” or “writer” or “photographer” as people that paid to do the thing. But I think looking at the term “athlete” as a good example that you need not be paid to do a thing to be the thing. Media, in all its forms that incessantly bombard us tells us that we need to consider monetization in all facets of our lives for legitimacy of the thing, this or that. But I call bull shit.

This all comes to mind as I’m sitting on the porch watching an endless stream of athletes run past the house. This town is full of athletes who never once consider financial connection to the sports they participate in.

True athletes may or may not win competitions. True athletes may or may not even participate in competitions. They are the ones simply getting out and doing it. Doing it for the sake of doing it. It can be exciting to win. It can be exciting to be good enough to earn recognition, but that is not what defines the experience. Being a thing, be it writer, athlete, photographer, knitter, dog walker, whatever, does not require recognition, but simply doing. I know people who write countless pages. And good writing. People who are not published or recognized, yet they continue. They are writers. Same in photography. And most other hobbies.

It is a weird cultural phenomenon that we think we need recognition to do the things we need for ourselves to do, as if the input of others is required for our internal drive. For me writing and photos are fun to share. But even if I found no pleasure in sharing my work I would still do them. For years I did not share any work and it never stopped me. Never slowed me. If anything it allowed a total freedom because it never crossed my mind how others might respond. I do these things because I love to do them. I love the act of writing. I love the challenge and difficulty and the sense of flow I find when I’m in shape, in the same way I love running in the mountains. I like using my brain this way. With regards to my cameras I like using these fascinating tools to capture moments and see if I can bring the scene, the shapes, the shadow, the colors and tones and mood into a dimensional space and recreate the sense I felt when taking it.

Good tools are enjoyable. For writing a good pen and smooth paper or a nice keyboard. (Parker pen, Leuctturm1917 paper, Mac keyboards). For photos a camera that sits well in the hand, functions to the peculiars of your brain, and renders colors similar to how you see them or feel them. There is no right answer. These are things we discover for ourselves. It is along this same vein why I like a good pair of running shoes. It is why woodworkers acquire good tools, and horsemen and women good saddles.

You find the thing you love to do and you do it. If you keep doing it you eventually and inevitably get better at the thing. Even if you don’t notice. In an age when we are incessantly confronted with the ability and encouraged to endlessly watch other doing something, I think across society many have lost, or perhaps never even started to find their own path of what they love to do. We need hobbies. Hobbies are awesome. Hobbies are healthy for us. But watching other people has become the hobby for many, and it’s ridiculous. We have whole groups of people simply creating things for people to watch and the others simply watching. Fewer and fewer are doing things just for the sake of doing them. Further discouraged by the societal notion that if it can’t be monetized it isn’t worth doing… many never pursue the itch they have to try a thing that looks interesting. Wood working. Playing an instrument. Knitting. Writing. Drawing. You do not have to be good to enjoy doing a thing, and often it is when it is most challenging that a thing offers the most satisfaction.

Nothing you start are you likely to be good at out of the gate. And if you are, you will likely be bored with it quickly. Natural talent is a thing, but incredibly rare. Most ultra talented people are so because they have put in the time necessary at the thing to be that good. Enjoying a thing for the sheer pleasure of doing it is a lost art. Prior to the internet the young generation made fun of old people that sat around for seemingly endless hours a day mindlessly watching televisions. Now… I don’t even need to finish that though. You know what I’m getting at. We all know where society stands out in this regard.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, not for us as individuals anyway, even if the rest of society goes for blob. Just do the thing that interests you. Try them. Find new interests. Try them too. And when you find the thing that just feels right and that you want to push into, can’t put down, you don’t need to articulate it, just follow it. Do it. Push into hard things. Embrace the challenge and the patience it takes to get better. Don’t worry about the why. Don’t worry about monetizing, as is so often the modern instinct. Don’t worry about making a career of it, just find work that is good enough and interesting and let that take care of your expenses in life. And don’t let others, or your mind, talk you into thinking you are too tired to do the things you want. You aren’t. You may need to build up the muscles, physical or mental, but humans have far more capacity and potential than we see across the media landscape. When you see those people truly pushing the boundary and doing great things, remember, they are just another human like you are. And while we are told they are special in this way or that, most accomplished people are so because of work and time put in, nothing more. They are doing the hard things it takes.

Missoula is wild in this regard. Because it’s never been an economically easy place to live it is has tended to draw people that choose it because of what it offers outside the economic landscape. The physical landscape. It draws people that want to do things outside. The number of incredibly strong, casual athletes is wild. People who work “regular” jobs but outside of work have the love, passion, and fortitude to push into incredible athletic feats. We have a community of cyclists and runners that do incredible things. It is continually inspiring, and humbling watching people with far less time doing far more.

Raising kids in this town has been incredible. They are exposed to dedicated, driven athletes who do the things for the sheer sake of doing them. Even in competition winning is not necessary for a satisfying outcome. It’s about the push. It’s about the community. It’s about mutually pushing each other further and faster and getting better. And it’s about the fun in suffering. The win is awesome when it falls on you, but not necessary to keep going. The cycling community like many of the other athletic endeavors is about so much more than just the occasional events. It’s the practice. The push. The time in saddle in the mountains.

These runners all flowing by my porch are yet another example. None are paid athletes. All of them crushing it. It’s not a race day. It is just another day. And yet here they are. Many of them I see several days a week. Most of them I could never keep up with. It’s awesome to live amongst these people even though I don’t know them. Inspiring people pushing, and doing.

We need to encourage not only ourselves but our friends and family to move away from being a nation of consumers to being a nation of doers. Doing is life. Doing is what makes us thrive. We’ve reached a point where the majority think that consumption is the only point and it’s made for a fat, lazy, and unhealthy society, both physically and mentally. Consumption is not the end game. Doing is what leads to satisfaction in life. Doing is what energizes and feeds our body and mind. I’m always amazed that on my laziest, most lethargic days when I don’t think I have energy to do anything, it is when I force myself on a run or bike ride that everything starts to work for me again. The energy is there, it just needs a push sometimes. These often end up being my best runs or rides.

Food is fuel. A tool. A temporary pleasure. But when we move through life, pushing and working on getting better at things that are non-consumptive, interacting with people and the landscapes around us, this is when life starts to matter. This is how good communities and healthy relationships thrive. When we work on skills, be it music, craft, or whatever, we push our minds and bodies. We build. We create. A thing. A memory. A friendship. A community. We need hobbies. Our society needs us to have hobbies.

Consume less. Do more.

That is the key to life.

Photos this week are from the Montana Gravel Challenge. Most of the riders are not professional. It is just a group of people that love pushing into the mountains on bikes.