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As much as people claim to try new things, I have found that people often seek what is comfortable, warm, known, and guaranteed. There is nothing wrong with this. In fact, seeking what is familiar is a natural human instinct, it is why humankind has lasted for thousands of years. However, only doing what is known can contain a person in what they can know. Conversely, always seeking out the unknown, the untested, and the uncharted can be somewhat foolish and misleading. Here, I posit a framework where humans can still live a comfortable, known life, while also expanding their mind and challenging themselves both internally and experientially.
Earlier this semester I had the unique privilege of attending the Naval Academy Leadership Conference (NALC) in Annapolis, Maryland. The conference was a three-day excursion from my normal life at UofL and it was one that provided me with renewal, energy, and perspective. For three days, undergraduates from across the country, naval midshipmen and other faculty members engaged in lectures and small group discussions that were centered around the theme of resilience. Before the conference, I would have said that I had a good grasp of what “resilience” was. I would have affirmed that it is the central idea of getting knocked down and getting up stronger. While that is true, in part, the NALC offered a much more nuanced and holistic way to view resilience.
Resilience, in my life, has had a different meaning than many of the speakers at NALC intended. To them, being resilient meant getting back into a fighter plane and completing another mission or recovering from a sniper wound during a covert night operation in the Iraq war. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I have not had to resilient in that type of way. Resilience to me looks something like bouncing back after a below-average test grade or mustering the will to write a paper on a boring topic. While I have had to deal with resilience in my own interpersonal way, the NALC shed light on strategies to build resilience if you live a relatively normal life. One of the quotes that stood out to me during the conference was,
“treat your brain as a muscle and train it accordingly.”
This quote offers a unique perspective on how we can use our brains to further our lifestyles. Conventionally, when we think of training and growing muscles, we think of our biceps, triceps, forearms, and for some calves. Yet we never think of our brains as an active muscle that we can work out in a physiological sense. Until I heard this at NALC, neither did I. After sharing the quote, the speaker went on to say that doing uncomfortable, yet important things every day without interfere is what it takes to grow your brain in a resilient way. He furthered his reasoning by saying that a habit takes 30 days to form, and the more you stick to the habit, the more grit you will build.
Sitting in the audience that day, I found that I had never internationally formed a habit that I would like to see in my life. Sure, I made minor changes to my lifestyle where need be, but I have never really gone for something repeatedly and consistently. Thus, in the grand auditorium at the US Naval Academy, I jotted down a note that I have carried with me for the past month. That note was,
“Do one hard thing every day.”
I intentionally kept this as broad as possible because I was not exactly sure what I had meant when I wrote that. The only thing that I knew in that moment was that I had lived an extremely comfortable, familiar life up to that point. When I got home from the NALC, I had decided that I would do one thing a day, no matter how meaningful or minor, that would take me out of my comfort zone. For the past month, those things have looked like striking up a conversation with a stranger in class, going to a professor’s office hours with no real purpose other than to just connect, applying to summer internships that I probably have a small chance of receiving, trying different foods that I have always had an aversion to, and above all, worrying a lot less about everything in my life. If there is one central idea that I have taken away from NALC, it is that I need to start worrying less and doing things that I actually enjoy doing. As college students, there is so much pressure put on having perfect grades, a polished resume, and a thriving social life, when, in reality, college removes a lot of what makes us, us. Thus, because of the NALC, I have been saved from the “Sophomore Slump” and I am, for the first time in a while, living my life the way that I actually want to. Therefore, I challenge any and all who read this blog to try and do one hard thing every day. No matter what that is, I can guarantee that it will broaden your worldview, allow you to meet interesting people, and learn so much more about yourself.
Caleb Aridano is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2024. He is studying history, political science, and English at the University of Louisville.