“Because it’s there”

That was the answer George Mallory gave when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. He died on the mountain during his third expedition there in 1924. It is still unknown whether he summited or not.

It is easy to chase the quick wins and generally going after small victories is the right thing to do.

At the same time, we must all go for hard wins. We must find that daunting, near impossible goal and go for it.

Don’t do it for the prospect of money and recognition (yes these are great motivators). Do it because it will be hard to achieve.

Why?

Doing hard things is meaningful. Waking up early, sacrificing social occasions, and sweating, swearing and stressing to achieve something makes it rewarding. The pain makes it worth it.

Working through it makes you unique.

If it were easy, it wouldn’t be the same. Anyone could do it.

Why did Mallory try to climb Everest? Why do athletes run marathons? Why do entrepreneurs work long hours? They do it because achieving their goals is hard. They love that it is hard.

In 1962 JFK summed this up in his ‘we choose to go to the Moon’ speech. He said that the USA chooses “to go to the Moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”. He added that “the goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”

The hardness of the goal — going to the moon in less than a decade — made it a challenge. The hardness was going to test their ‘energies and skills’ and they were not going to find themselves wanting. They were going to win.

So what does this mean for us?

It means that we must all find a goal that will be more than hard to achieve — maybe it’s losing 20kg’s, writing a book, completing an Ironman, or building a business with over 50 employees and X Rands in profit. We must wakeup every day fixated on that goal. Every time that we experience obstacles, pain or other things that make achieving the goal hard we must remember that this hardness is why we are here. We must remember that the hardness makes it meaningful, it makes it rewarding, and it makes us unique.