ADAPTATION

For a moment darkness falls, my eyes burning, seared shut by sweat, a deceivingly crippling load of 40% weighing down on my back as I wait for the everlasting five second countdown to elapse. In my attempt to explode up and out of the hole my vision is restored just in time to see the reflection of my contorted face that transcends what this self-inflicted torture is all about: conflict and the struggle to overcome it. After each humbling experience I can't help but to think about the words of Frederick Douglass: "Without struggle there is no progress." A statement that has become the very antithesis of common training practices and to a greater and far more unfortunate extent the way in which most people choose to live life.

Taking pride in a long and hard day's work has been replaced by the infomercial induced supposition that if you are working that hard then you are probably doing it wrong. The idea of rolling up your sleeves to get your hands dirty is assuming the role of a lost art, comfort zones are the climate of choice and complacency is the contagion for my generation. Fear and self-doubt have infected our culture's decision making because of the strong association between these emotions and the ego shattering notion of failure. As a defense mechanism we choose to avoid rather than assail upon these tasks in hopes of getting through another frictionless day so that we can wrap our bodies in a comfortable blanket of security and rest easily.

I too was guilty of this. For much of my life I allowed fear to dictate my engagements and influence the person I was becoming. My endeavors consisted of what I knew and what I was good at, not realizing that I was restricting my ability to handle the many uncertainties that life so liberally offers. Sometimes though you are forced to adjust, fight or flight becomes less of a choice and more of a conditioned response when you come to understand what exactly you are forfeiting and why it's worth fighting for. It became impossible for me to look in the mirror knowing that I had a chance for something better or an opportunity for personal growth slip away because I lacked the testicular fortitude to try. I wondered how people can go through life looking others in the eye when they couldn't do it to their own and understood that it was time for change. Fear and self-doubt turned into guides rather than deterrents on my journey through life allowing me to view no obstacle as too great to overcome and that no task was above my endurance to complete because regardless of the result I would be laying the foundation for future accomplishments.

It occurred to me that our existence, all which has led up to who we are and what we can be is derived from this simple concept of struggle. Evolution can be viewed as the gradual adaptation in which an organism converts into a different and more complex or more durable form. Adaptation in this sense is the necessary precursor for growth, through the process of adaptation we experience growth but once the process is complete so is the development. The fundamental element that facilitates our evolution is that particular stimulus which provides both the friction and the struggle that we must eventually surmount. And hopefully that obstacle or journey will be so daunting that it will activate our often neglected primal urge to prevail to such an extent that it enhances the way in which life is lived. To increase one's propensity for personal growth is the goal but the purpose is to realize that we are far more capable than we originally thought possible.