So picture this: a poorly-lit apartment complex gym with only four pieces of equipment. Mirrors line the walls and the late afternoon sun glares through the windows. No one’s there but me (just the way I like it, might I add) and as I stare at myself in the mirror, I see it. The thing I’ve been waiting for the entire hour as I’ve tortured myself with burpees and wall sits…

Sweat. So much sweat.

Really attractive image, right?

The thing is, all of that sweat is easily my favorite part of the workout. It’s the tangible evidence I have that says, “Heck yeah, I did that! I put in work, and I can literally see it!” This is so important to keep me motivated with exercise because the sweat on my shirt or forehead is the only immediate result I’ll ever see. Sure, after a couple weeks things get easier, and maybe a month or two goes by and I’ll start to notice myself trimming down. But in the meantime, all I have is the gross sweat pouring from my body that shows how far I’m coming.

Life’s a lot like that. We really just spend a whole lot of our time sweating (and if you live in Florida like I do, you can take that figuratively and literally……. seriously, it’s hot here.)

So much of our lives are spent working really hard, struggling to get it right, and bouncing back when we mess it all up. You’ll find yourself studying so hard in school even though your diploma seems lightyears away. Maybe you’re running a couple more miles every few days, even though that marathon 6 months from now seems impossible. You can put everything you’ve got into your work, those long hours that turn into long days, even though you know a promotion may not come for a while. You’ll spend the time to put in the work, the dirty and grimey and really hard work, because you know it’s all gonna feel so good: the walk at graduation, the sprint through the finish line, the day you get the position you deserve.

All that time spent in a place we don’t necessarily want to be doing a thing we don’t necessarily want to do… maybe it sounds like a waste of your life. But I like to think that if what you’re working for is really your dream, when you get to where you’re going and take look at what’s behind you (your metaphorical sweat if you will) you’ll know every minute was worth it.

And that, that victorious glance behind you, is what is so great about sweat. Both the life sweat and the actual sweat, fyi. It usually just feels like this gross, annoying thing but really it’s pushing you all the while, “keep going! you’re doing great! we’re making progress over here!” It’s the thing that encourages you and makes you better and reminds you why you’re here in the first place. It’s the mile marker in the race, the dean’s list recognition each semester, the pat on your back in a meeting at the office.

So let’s learn to appreciate it a little more – the hard work we really don’t want to do. Because it’s in these messy and challenging places that you’ll grow and learn and change before your very own eyes.