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To become a hard worker takes practice, like anything else. You have to work at it and try to get better all the time.
The 75 Hard Program is designed to help you become a hard worker and make you mentally tough. Mental toughness is required to consistently do hard work.
You can get motivated. You can get pissed off. Both of these will help you do incredible amounts of work over short periods.
I learned these two tricks in Boot Camp and SOI (School of Infantry) while I was trying to become a Marine. We did hikes, runs, and physical fitness tests that I wasn’t I could survive. I noticed our drill instructors didn’t or couldn’t because they switched off making us do work while they took breaks.
It was incredibly challenging. As I went further and further into boot camp I discovered motivation. Not just the word, but actually jumping up and down excited like a little kid going to Disneyland excited. When I had that mental state I could get any amount of work done… for a short period of time.
As I went through training we started doing harder things in SOI. Range runs were fun… run about 5 miles with all your gear and extra weapons systems to train with. It was a cheap way to get us from the armory to the ranges. Vehicles are expensive and time consuming to book. Running just means getting on the road and going for it.
Some of the range runs felt impossible. I had so much crap on me and then was carrying large machine guns and rocket launchers (M240G and AT4’s) at the time. The pace was quick as the instructors were carrying water and not much else. The students were required to carry full packs, individual weapons, body armor, and helmets, on top of water and food for the day.
As I picked up equipment from my fellow Marines that were falling back I found that I would get pissed off at them for leaving me with all this extra gear and not pulling their weight. I would yell at them and that would motivate me to keep going. Once they fell out and got into the emergency vehicle, I’d just get more pissed and be fuming as I ran to catch up with the rest of the group.
Both those techniques worked for short bursts, but Boot Camp was 13 weeks. I couldn’t stay motivated for that long. Mental toughness came in. Just keep grinding day in and day out.
SOI was 9 weeks. I couldn’t stay pissed off the entire time… I tried. I had to get the mental toughness to kick in and finish the course or get recycled to try again. If you didn’t make it the second time you could be kicked out of the Marine Corps. So I dug in and kept going. Despite having strep throat at the end, I finished with my class.
That was 1999. Since then my mental toughness hasn’t been where I want it to be. I want to do an incredible amount of work for myself, my business, and my family. But I’m tired. My back hurts. I’m out of shape. I’m fat. I just need a break. I have a million reasons to not be a hard worker. But that’s not what I want to be or do. I want to be capable of incredible amounts of work.
Being a hard worker takes mental toughness and practice. After boot camp and SOI, my practice came and went. My mental toughness went up and down as challenges came and went.
My life quit being tough after I got back from Iraq the last time in 2009. So I started getting softer and softer, both mentally and physically.
In 2019 I was listening to the MFCEO Project Podcast (now the RealAF Podcast) and Andy Frisella outlined his idea for a 75 Hard Challenge. I was driving home from Houston to San Antonio after working there for a week to get on a plane and head to Las Vegas for a friend’s wedding.
I was so impressed by the idea of learning how to get my mental toughness back and being able to be that young Marine again, that I took notes while I was driving, figured out how I was going to do it with the rest of the drive, and then created a start date. I was to start the day I got home from Vegas.
I started the day I got back. It didn’t go well that first day and I missed a workout and had to restart. That second time, I went straight through and started to be mentally tough again.
Over the last year, I have done more work than I use to and feel better then I did for years. I still have a long way to go to be physically fit again, but I am getting a lot more work done on my business, this web site, and with my family, than I use to.
I use to come home from work, thinking I put in a hard day, and want to lay around the house until bedtime. Just so I could get up and do it again. After I finished 75 Hard I was getting more done at work and doing things with the family when I got home.
My wife was so impressed with the change of my attitude that she tried the 75 Hard Challenge with me later (you can see our journey at 75 Hard Round 3). We both completed a modified version of it together. I think I got more out of it then she did. But we enjoyed doing the challenge together.
If you want to be a hard worker you have to practice and become mentally tough. The best way I’ve found, outside of Marine Corps Boot Camp and School of Infantry is the 75 Hard Challenge. Take the challenge and complete it and you will be a new person. A better and harder worker, not only at work but at home and in the things you want to be good at.
Go do your challenge! Get your free starters guide below.
Ben Branam