What's the Hardest Thing to Do?

Over a month has passed by since my last letter. That’s because I’ve been busy launching a new business with my brother. The business is called Hard-Mode. It’s a lifestyle brand focused on encouraging people to break their limits and live life to the fullest. The three aspects of the business that we’re working on right now are fitness and nutrition coaching, a clothing line, and creating videos on Youtube to promote the Hard-Mode lifestyle.

We officially launched Hard-Mode on May 21! We launched in a big way by having a launch party at Wildplay where we bungee jumped! And we also released our first video that day.

For our first video we went around our downtown park Maffeo Sutton and asked strangers the question, “What’s the hardest thing to do?”

It turned out to be a more profound video than I originally expected. First it ended up being a really great story about my brother overcoming the fear of starting a conversation with strangers. Then as we started talking to people we were surprised by how deep and honest the answers were to our question.

I really encourage you to watch the video! Click here for the link.

We found it to be a very humbling and eye-opening experience. We thought we were going to get answers that were more about activity based challenges like conquering the fear of heights with skydiving or running a marathon, but the answers we got were more about the hardships that life throw at us.

I gave my own answer to the question in the video, and it was just one of the activity based challenges that came to my head. With Hard-Mode we are planning to do a lot of activity based challenges so that’s what I was thinking of, and while I think my answer would still be one of the harder things for me to do, I wouldn’t say it’s the hardest.

What’s the hardest thing for me to do?

Perhaps the hardest thing for me is sharing my opinions. I know a lot of people have no problem sharing their opinions (the internet is full of them) so I might sound odd saying that and maybe it’s actually a good thing that I don’t share my opinions much. A lot of the times though I want to say something to someone but I just keep my mouth shut. If anyone asks me for my opinion I’ll give it to them honestly but for the most part I keep my opinions to myself. Otherwise I’d probably surprise people.

The truth is though that the reason I don’t tell people my opinions is that I needed people to like me, and I was afraid that I might tell someone something that they don’t like hearing and then they won’t like me even though I have good intentions. I felt like the success of what I was trying to do was hinged on people liking me, and after years that need to be liked became deeply internalized. What I’ve found though is that by not sharing my opinions so everyone likes me, I end up not liking myself as much and I end up not liking the people around me as much.

I am so much more than who people think I am though, and I believe everyone could be so much more than who they think themselves to be. Our lives could be so much more than they are, and I believe the world could be so much better than what it is currently.

That’s what Hard-Mode is about for me. It’s about becoming less restrained. It’s about expressing the part of me that believes strongly in the pursuit of improvement, and attracting the people who also want more in all aspects of life. It’s about breaking our limits and living life to the fullest!

We strive to overcome what challenges us. Do what’s hard. Not easy. Push ourselves to level up. Because life is more fun and fulfilling when you play it on Hard-Mode.

This is the beginning of a big exciting journey and I hope you’ll be joining us.

Go watch our first video and I would love it if you leave a comment with your answer to the question “What’s the hardest thing to do?”

We’ve also released our second video of us bungee jumping at our launch party!

Our next video is going to be a big one and really ambitious! It will come out in July.

Subscribe to the Legends of Hard-Mode Youtube channel.

Follow us on Twitter.

If you really don’t want to miss anything, sign up for the Hard-Mode newsletter on our website. www.hard-mode.com

Check out our shop.

Stay tuned for so much more!

-Zach