If you remain calm in the midst of great chaos,

it's the surest guarantee that it will eventually subside.

Julie Andrews.

One of the most powerful things about intentionally immersing yourself in difficult situations

is that it prepares you for the inevitable adversity that will come your way when it's unexpected,

unplanned, the obstacles life places before all of us.

That's why I so often draw a line from physical fitness and athletics to the real world.

Doing difficult training, for me particularly endurance training or

interval training, is that creates a level of exhaustion. I tend not to encounter anywhere

else, right? It's a phenomenal practice at separating out what must be done in the moment

from how we feel. It uncouples

those two things. It's taming chaos in a controlled environment that improves our ability

to handle stress out in the world. And what keeps pulling me in is when you're in it, going from set to set,

45 minutes straight with no rest. There are these particular moments where your heart rate's

elevated, your body is fatigued, you're pushing your physical limit,

and under a different set of circumstances,

you'd stop.

Maybe you'd take a breather, because that's what makes sense to do.

But this is what's powerful, right?

In those moments, you learn to float above all of that.

It's excess.

It's noise.

...