Stop hacking your life

If I have to see one more article about “hack” your life I may just throw up.

On the surface hacking your life seems like such a good idea, you save time and you can get “more” done. What more could you possibly want, you get to skip over all that “work” and just get the reward.

This would all be great except for the fact that it is all so wrong. Life is not about your accomplishments, it is about the journey and what it took you to get there. If you could just take an elevator to the top of Mount Everest would it still be an amazing accomplishment? The answer is no, and that is what hacking really is, it is a way to cheat yourself out of the work but to also cheat yourself out of some valuable life lessons and character building that go along with it. It stops you from having amazing stories that you will remember for the rest of your life. It lacks life.

One of my biggest accomplishments was completing Ironman Wisconsin with Team Katie. I can remember the finish line like it was yesterday and what I can still remember is all the work that went into it. The early mornings, Saturday’s dedicated to your workout and going to bed around 9:00 pm on a Friday night and it was all so worth it, it made the journey. If I had the chance to just be able to take a pill a day before and be ready, I would refuse because it lacks life.

Hacking your life seems like such a good idea because you can avoid all that “pain” that goes along with actually putting in the work but that is where the real magic happens. You see how strong you really are and how hard work pays off. You get to experience the thrill of living in those moments of pain and when you overcome them to move on.

One of the biggest selling points of hacking or in fact the main selling point is all the time you save and yet time is one of the main ingredients for success. It takes time to develop anything that is truly sustainable and powerful. If that time scares you, maybe you should not be doing it in the first place.

Stop missing life and start to really live life. Yes hacking your life is so much easier and there is less pain but it is nothing compared to the feeling you get when you accomplish something you never thought you could do and did the actual work.