"How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains! To behold this alone is worth the pains of any excursion a thousand times over.” John Muir

My freshman year of college, I had a strength and fitness coach who would always repeat the phrase “embrace the suck”. For years I wore this phrase a badge of courage, convincing myself that certain things had to hurt, to be hard, that you had to “grind”. 

I had many people tell me before I started hiking that there would be a day (or multiple) where I thought to myself Why the hell am I choosing to do this? As much as people romanticize hiking, as beautiful as the pictures are, this was physically the most challenging thing I had done in my life to date…more than preseason, more than ACL rehabilitation, more than multiple double overtime games in a day. The Sierras are relentless. 

And you know what? I never did have that thought, not once, because I chose it. I found that phrase, “embrace the suck” coming into my mind but as I thought more about it, I realized that phrase didn’t really resonate with me so much anymore. If we are truly embracing hardship in our lives, then are they really hardships anymore? It’s like that phrase that says “this didn’t happen to me, it happened for me”. Sure, we can embrace the suck, grind it out, make it through whatever it is, suffering, counting the reps, the footsteps, the miles….but wouldn’t it be much more powerful to transmute it? To take that feeling of “suck” and rename it? Take agency over it rather than let it control your perception of the situation?

What if we took the challenge presented to us and said I am grateful for this, I love this, this experience is essential for me to become the most embodied version of myself. Those were the thoughts that were coming to my head when I was walking up yet another 1,000 ft of elevation in the heat at 4 in the afternoon at almost 15 miles for the day.

I am so lucky that I got to take this time off.

I am so blessed that my body is able to carry me through this challenging trail. 

I love being outside. 

Wow, the trees smell so good. That lake is so blue. 

I really can’t believe I am doing this, this is so beautiful it doesn’t feel real.

It is so empowering to be able to hike this many miles each day and survive out here. 

My mind and thoughts are so clear. 

And then… it isn’t really “suck” anymore, is it? It’s just gratitude. And yea, you might have to fake it a bit and you might have to search for some things to be grateful for sometimes but eventually it becomes your new default and all of a sudden there isn’t really anymore suck. 

It isn’t easy but it is worth a try.