Life Is Hard… But We Get To Choose Our Hard

One thought can flip your entire story: you don’t get to skip hard—you get to choose it. We unpack how that simple truth reframes health, career, and relationships, and why comfort often hides a cost that shows up years later as regret, fatigue, and lost potential. From a humbling moment struggling to pick up a pen to walking millions of steps and shedding weight, we share how small, chosen challenges compound into confidence, identity, and freedom.

Together we break down “positive hard” versus “negative hard,” revealing how some forms of struggle keep you stuck while others transform you. You’ll hear the mindset shifts that make consistency possible when the scale doesn’t budge, the practical cues that help you choose aligned actions in real time, and the surprising way repetition turns once-intimidating habits into your new comfort. Health choices, honest conversations, and courageous moves at work all become easier when you anchor them to values you can act on today.

If you’re ready to trade passive comfort for purposeful effort, this conversation gives you a simple playbook: pause before a decision, ask which hard you’re choosing, and pick one small action that builds you. Keep it up tomorrow, and the next day, until strength and resilience feel natural. Subscribe for more grounded strategies, share this with someone who needs a nudge, and leave a review to tell us the one hard you’re choosing today.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Quote That Shifts Everything
• 0:34 Defining Hard: Health, Work, Love
• 1:31 Rock Bottom: The Pen on the Floor
• 2:28 Comfort’s Hidden Cost
• 3:28 Positive Hard vs. Negative Hard
• 4:24 Small Choices, Big Momentum
• 5:27 The Challenge: Pick One Hard Today
• 7:10 Build a Life of Strength and Freedom
• 9:13 Closing Reminder: Choose Your Hard

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:05

Hello. I want to share a powerful quote about choice. Choose your hard. Marriage is hard, divorce is hard. Obesity is hard, being fit is hard. Working a job you hate is hard. Chasing your dream is hard. Life will never be easy. But we always get to choose our hard. Welcome back my friends to the 3 Million Step Awakening podcast. I'm your host, J.A. Medina. That quote right there, it changed my life. It opened my eyes to the truth I couldn't ignore anymore. Everything in life is hard. But we get to choose which hard we want. Here's the reality of hard. Think about it. Being healthy is hard. Getting healthy is hard. Being stuck in a job is hard. Building the career you dream of, that's hard too. Living in a broken relationship is hard. Having the honest conversation, that's hard as well. You don't get to escape hard. The only choice you have is which heart you're going to live with. For me, the turning point was something so simple. It's almost embarrassing to say. Bending down to pick up a pen. Yes, getting down on all fours, putting my knees on the floor and my hands on the floor to pick up a pen. That was hard. My body was so heavy, so worn down. That small action left me aching. That was my reality. That was my heart. But then I looked at my health journey. Losing 40 or 50 pounds. That sounded impossible at the time.

SPEAKER_00: 2:11

Walking three million steps. That's insane. That was hard too. One heart was keeping me stuck. The other heart had the potential to set me free.

SPEAKER_01: 2:28

You know, comfort is hard too. Here's what most of us get wrong. We think comfort is easy, but comfort is just another kind of hard. Sitting on the couch night after night feels so easy. So easy. Until you wake up years later with health issues. That's hard. Staying in the same job feels safe until you realize you wasted years of your potential. That's hard. Eating fast food feels convenient until you're fighting with your body every single day. That's hard too. So the question isn't, do I want an easy life?

SPEAKER_00: 3:22

The real question is, which hard am I going to choose? Positive hard versus negative hard. I learned that there are two kinds of hard. The hard that keeps you stuck, and the hard that builds you up. One drains you, the other transforms you. Let that hit. One drains you, the other transformed you. When I started walking every day, it was hard.

SPEAKER_01: 4:01

Passing on the double Western bacon cheeseburger from Carl Jr., my all-time favorite burger growing up. Man, I was going on a diet, and that was what I was not gonna be able to eat. That was hard. Stepping on the scale and seeing no movement sometimes, man, that was so brutal.

SPEAKER_00: 4:26

But choosing those hards, choosing to keep on going, those positive hards gave me strength back.

SPEAKER_01: 4:37

They built my confidence. They taught me I could do more than I could ever believed. Here's the beautiful part.

SPEAKER_00: 4:47

When you keep choosing the right heart, something shifts.

SPEAKER_01: 4:53

Nine months ago, running a mile was unthinkable. Today, running feels so much easier than bending down to pick up that pen I once had to. The heart I once feared became my new comfort. And the old comforts, the couch, the fast food, the easy excuses. They started to feel unbearable. That's the reward of choosing the right heart. It flips the whole story of your life. Here's my challenge to you. Here's what I want you to do today. When you're faced with a choice, pause and ask yourself, which heart am I choosing? At work, maybe the heart is speaking up instead of staying silent. In your relationship, maybe the heart is having the honest conversation. In your health, maybe the heart is lacing up those shoes and taking that walk. Don't shy away from hard. Lean into it. But lean into the heart that pushes you forward. Friends, life will always bring you challenges. You don't get to skip the heart, but you do get to choose which one will shape you. So tomorrow, next week, and every day after, don't choose the heart that keeps you stuck. Don't choose the heart that drains you. Choose the heart that inspires you. Choose the heart that builds you. Choose the heart that reveals the strongest version of yourself.

SPEAKER_00: 6:42

Because in the end, we all live a hard life.

SPEAKER_01: 6:47

But the right heart, the one you choose with intention, becomes a path to freedom. Now here's my challenge to you. Today, before you go to bed, I want you to pick up one hard thing. Just one. Maybe it's walking for 20 minutes when you rather sit on the couch. Maybe it's choosing water over soda at lunch. Maybe it's sending that email you've been avoiding. Maybe it's finally having the conversation you've been scared of. Pick one. Do it. Prove it to yourself that you can choose a hard that serves you, not a heart that keeps you trapped. And tomorrow, do it again and again and again until your heart becomes your new normal. Promise you, when you look back weeks, months, or even years from now, you'll be amazed at who you've become. Simply because you decided to choose your hard. So go out today and choose your hard. My friends, remember this, life will always be hard, but you hold the power to choose which hard you will carry. Will you choose the heart that keeps you stuck or the hard that pulls you forward? Every step, every choice, every small decision builds and builds that person you are becoming. So today, choose the heart that strengthens you. Choose the heart that grows you. Choose the heart that pushes you closer to the person you know deep down you were meant to be. And when tomorrow comes, choose it again and again and again. So one day you look back and realize you've built a life not of comfort, not of easiness, not of excuses, but of strength, resilience, and freedom. Because in the end, we don't escape hard, but we do get to choose it. So every single day, choose your heart and choose your best self. Until next time, my friends, choose your heart, choose your growth, and choose the best version of you.