At some point, we have to stop being so afraid of doing hard things. If you can safely lift heavier, lift heavier. If you’re hydrated, prepared and capable, go for the run. If you’ve lost your job, give yourself a moment, but then figure out what’s next. Learn a new skill. Update your resume. Apply for the job. Or maybe this is the push you needed to create something of your own.

If you have certifications you need to complete, finish them. Take the course. Study. Get qualified. Invest in yourself.

If your health isn’t where you want it to be, start doing what you can to improve it. Walk, lift weights, eat better, sleep better and go and make the appointment. Start somewhere.

And if you need therapy, get it. There is no shame in taking care of your mental health or asking for help. Self-care isn’t always a massage, a vacation or a day off. Sometimes it’s doing the difficult work you know you need to do. And travel.

If you have the money and the opportunity, go. Get off this little island for a while. Go somewhere far away from Bermuda. Experience another culture. Eat the food. Walk the streets.

If you don’t have the money right now, start saving for that bucket-list trip. It may take a year or two, but start. Give yourself something incredible to work towards.

We spend so much time waiting to feel ready. Waiting until we’re less scared. Waiting until life settles down. Waiting until Monday.

Waiting until the timing is perfect. But life doesn’t promise us perfect timing.

Today was a perfect example for me. I was in town and definitely wasn’t feeling like going all the way back to Southampton to run on the beach. It would have been very easy to talk myself out of it.

But I went. And I literally just finished that beach run as I’m writing this.

You’re not always going to feel motivated. You don’t have to feel like doing something before you do it. Sometimes you just go and you’re glad you did.

I still want to do HYROX. I still want to participate in Race Weekend again in January. And I’m going to do it.

Will it be hard? Absolutely. Am I going to have to train and push myself on days when I don’t particularly feel like it? Yep.

But, that’s the point. I don’t want to stop setting hard goals because they make me uncomfortable. I want to keep finding out what I’m capable of.

Doing hard things doesn’t mean being reckless. There’s a difference between challenging yourself and ignoring your limits.

Sometimes you have to push past what feels comfortable to discover what you’re actually capable of.

Growth doesn’t usually happen when everything is easy. It happens when you challenge yourself, adapt, and realise, “I can do more than I thought I could.”

And sometimes the hardest thing is simply deciding that the life you have right now doesn’t have to be the life you have for ever.

You don’t have to change everything today. But you can change something today. Because “later” feels guaranteed right up until we realise it never was.

Do the hard thing and B-Active For Life!

• Betty Doyling is a certified fitness trainer and figure competitor with more than a decade of experience. Look for B. ActiveForLife on Facebook