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Every morning I walk up a steep hill in Manchester called Jutland Street. I mean really steep. The road is maybe only 60-70 yards long but it must gain a good 20 yards in height. We’re talking San Francisco steep here.

It has a YouTube video, for goodness sake

Every morning, almost without fail, there are people doing sprints up and down that hill. Sometimes it is a super-fit guy who looks like he is training for a middleweight boxing match, but most of the time it is average-looking people huffing and puffing their way up that insane cobbled incline. The kind of people that head off to average-looking offices dressed in average-looking suits after they’re finished.

So why do they do it? Why subject themselves to what must be a jaw-clenchingly tough and brutal ordeal every morning? Seriously – sprinting up and down a steep hill?? Wouldn’t they be better just going for a normal jog? Or, you know, a nice walk?!

I’ve been mulling it over ever since I started seeing them, and I’ve reached this conclusion…

They do it because it’s hard.

Most people do things because they’re easy. We are all guity of picking the simplest route or the most straight-forward course, aiming for the pain-free approach to life. We all choose the path of least resistance from time to time.

Not these guys.

They have chosen this path precisely because it ISN’T easy, simple or pain free. They are pushing themselves, straining to do something truly challenging.

They know that pushing themselves is the fastest way to grow. Maybe the ONLY way to grow.

I watch these people running up and down that hill with a sense of pure admiration, and it makes me think about running up my own hill. What more could I do in my life? Pick up the phone and make that call. Do the task I’ve been putting off. Put myself out there more openly and honestly in my business. Really go outside my comfort zone and start to grow.

I think we all have a hill to run up in our lives. I need to start running up mine more regularly. Are you running up yours?