What’s something most people don’t understand?

There are so many cheesy inspirational sayings stitched onto pillows and plastered on notebooks and Instagram accounts sprouting the benefits and joys of trying.

They are lying.

Trying anything sucks, especially if it is something that you are really invested in achieving.

Trying will break your heart.

If it doesn’t, you either aren’t trying hard enough or you don’t care enough.

One thing we hear a lot about in running, especially ultrarunning is that you need to fall in love with the process because at the end of the day, when race day comes, you are likely to fail.

Never mind goal times, finishing is not a given.

The outcome is never guaranteed.

You can try your hardest on the day, after months or even years of training and it just isn’t your day.

And it’s devastating. But we learn and we try again.

The suckage of it all, is not a reason to give up or not try at all.

But the more you do, the more races you sign up for, the more jobs or promotions you apply for, the more activities you try, the more you will fail and it will suck.

But odds are, the more likely you are to succeed too.

I’m not some super positive, self help guru. I’m not even that nice. I know it’s hard.

It’s so much easier said than done, especially when that “failure” makes you question your value and whether you are good enough to be trying in the first place.

We tell others to “keep trying” all the time. Our friends, our family, our kids, our colleagues, keep trying and eventually you’ll be good enough or you’ll get what you have dreamed of.

We don’t tell ourselves that though. We tell ourselves the opposite.

Thing is, neither of those statements are true.

Maybe you’ll get the thing, maybe you won’t.

But you have to try, right?

What is something most people don’t understand? Trying sucks!