When Life Makes You Dig Deep

My husband is about to take on one of the world’s toughest ultra trail races The UTMB. 174km, 10,000 metres of elevation gain, across three countries.

He has trained relentlessly. He has the right nutrition, the right kit, the right preparation and a carefully considered plan.

And yes, all of these things matter.

But when I think about what will ultimately carry him across that finish line, I believe it will be something deeper.

Sheer belief.


Utter grit.


The willingness to keep going when his body is exhausted and every part of him is telling him to stop.

There will be moments when the mountains feel impossibly high. When the darkness feels endless. When his legs are heavy, his mind is tired and the discomfort becomes something he can no longer ignore.

That is when he will have to dig deep.

Not just into his physical reserves, but into the depths of his mind.

Into the part of him that says:

Keep going.
 One more breath, One more step.
 You can do this.

And it got me thinking about life.

Because life has a way of putting mountains in front of us that we never planned to climb.

Grief.

Heartbreak.

Loss.

Illness.

Change.

Fear.

Failure.

Relationships that break us.

Seasons where we simply don’t know what comes next.

We can prepare for life. We can build healthy foundations, surround ourselves with good people, learn coping strategies and take care of our minds and bodies.

But sometimes, despite everything we do, life still gets hard.

And when it does, we discover something about ourselves.

We discover that strength isn’t always about feeling strong.

Sometimes strength is getting out of bed when you don’t want to.

Sometimes it’s asking for help.

Sometimes it’s admitting that you’re struggling.

Sometimes it’s putting one foot in front of the other without knowing exactly where the path is taking you.

And sometimes, just like climbing a mountain, it’s about looking at the enormity of what’s ahead and deciding not to think about the whole mountain.

Just take the next step.

Then the next.

Then the next.

Dig deep, but don’t dig alone.

There is something important about resilience that we can sometimes get wrong.

Resilience doesn’t mean doing everything on your own.

We are not designed to carry everything alone.

The strongest people I know are not necessarily those who never fall apart. They are the people who have learned when to reach out, when to rest, when to accept support and when to keep moving forward.

Sometimes digging deep means finding your own inner strength.

And sometimes it means having the courage to say:

“I can’t do this on my own.”

Both are strength.

You don’t have to conquer the whole mountain today.

When you’re standing at the bottom of a mountain, looking all the way to the summit can feel overwhelming.

Life can feel the same.

When we’re facing a difficult season, we can become consumed by the question:

“How am I ever going to get through this?”

Perhaps the answer isn’t to figure out the entire journey.

Perhaps it’s simply to ask:

“What is the next right step?”

Take today.

Take this moment.

Take the next breath.

Then take the next step.

You don’t have to know exactly how you’re going to reach the other side.

You just need to keep moving towards it.

And remember, mountains change us.

My husband may finish this race with a medal of some sort, but I suspect the real achievement will be everything that happens inside him along the way.

The moments he wants to stop.

The moments he doubts himself.

The moments he has to dig deeper than he ever imagined possible.

Because sometimes it is only when we are pushed beyond what feels comfortable that we discover what we are truly capable of.

The mountain doesn’t just test you.

It reveals you.

And perhaps that’s true of life too.

The difficult seasons don’t define who we are, but they can reveal strengths we didn’t know we possessed.

So if you’re standing in front of a mountain in your own life right now, remember:

You don’t have to be fearless.

You don’t have to have everything figured out.

You don’t have to feel strong every day.

You simply need to keep coming back to yourself.

Breathe.

Reach out.

Rest when you need to.

Trust that difficult moments can be survived.

And when you are ready…

Dig deep.

There may be far more strength within you than you realise.

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.” Matthew 17:20

Sometimes the mountain isn’t there to break you.
 Sometimes it’s there to show you how strong you can become.

If you need help navigating your own mountain, I am here to help.