Live A Hard Life To Live An Easy Life | EP 023

In this episode, Phil shares his philosophy of choosing the hard path in life to ultimately live an easier, more fulfilling life. Drawing from his personal experiences in the military and overcoming challenges, Phil emphasizes the importance of discipline, sacrifice, and pushing through discomfort. He teaches that people have a tendency to settle for mediocrity, whether in jobs, relationships, or personal health, and how this leads to a harder life. Phil advocates for embracing challenges and discomfort, like waking up early, pushing through physical limits, and being open and vulnerable in relationships. Because this all helps us achieve success, happiness, and an easier life in the long run. We should all confront the difficult decisions and tasks we avoid, if we want to live a life of purpose, fulfillment, and ease.

Welcome to The Phil Bohol Show, hosted by USMC veteran, mindset coach, sales expert, self-made entrepreneur, husband, and father, Phil Bohol. On this podcast, we don't just offer strategies — we offer a war cry, a call to arms, a challenge to rise, to break free from the shackles of mediocrity. You’ll learn the raw truth on how to break your limitations, scale your business to 7-figures, and level up every area of your life. Together, we won't just face challenges. We will crush them. Relentlessly.


Timestamps:

(01:06) - How a Hard Life Leads to an Easy One

(08:40) - Seeking Discomfort

(12:15) - Learning Resilience in the Military

(15:10) - Surrendering to Purpose


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Transcription:

[00:00:00] I remember in the military, I used to see some of my seniors and they'd be like doing some crazy sh*t and I'm like, “Jesus Christ, bro. We haven't slept in days. We barely eat. We haven't drank a lot of f*cking water. You know, how the f*ck are you doing that? How are you still screaming at the top of your lungs? How are you still f*cking motivated? How are you still pushing?”

[00:00:30] And when I saw that as a private, as a private first class, as a Lance Corporal, and I saw my seniors and I was like, “Jesus, these guys are f*cking - I need to be that. I need to adopt that. I need to learn that operating system.”

What's going on, you guys?

It's Phil Bohol, and welcome to the Phil Bohol Show, where we have real talk about family, fitness, finance, and everything that would hold you back from leveling up in every area of your life. 

And more importantly, how I personally got through them. 

Everybody else in this world wants to bullsh*t you.

[00:01:00] I'm here to give you the truth.

If you want to live an easy life, you have to live a hard life. 

I literally just said this and for some reason I was like, I need to make a video about this. 

I need to expand on this. 

Because it doesn't make any sense. 

When you live a hard life, you live an easy life. 

If you want an easy life, you have to live a hard life.

What the f*ck does that mean? 

Here's what it means. 

[00:01:30] Most people think that life is hard. 

The reality is, life is hard because they take the easy path. 

They go to a mediocre job that they drag their feet to. 

They work for a sh*tty boss that they know they don't like, but they smile and pretend and they text back and they act like they're BFFs, even though in their heart of hearts, they know they don't like that person.

[00:02:00] They literally would prefer not to talk to that person ever all the time, but they do because they settle and it's mediocre because it's easy because you don't have to do anything.

So you settle for a mediocre job, you commute and you drive to that job every single day, and you know, you hate it. 

For me, I used to commute once, four hours per day, back and forth. 

And I was settling because all I did was complain that I was having to commute to a job that I hated, but I did nothing about it. 

[00:02:30] It was easier for me to play victim, it was easier for me to complain, thus, I had a hard life. 

When we have family members who don't believe in us, when we're just like, I'm gonna change my life, and then we start telling family members, and everybody just does the opposite of support us, which is, “Hey, just slow down, you don't wanna dream too big. You might get disappointed.” 

[00:03:00] Isn't it easier to just believe them and say, “Oh yeah, I mean, that's so true. It's so true not to believe in myself. It's so true that if my parents or my family tell me that I should not dream so big, I probably shouldn't.” 

Isn't it easier just to believe the lies of the world?

Isn't that easier? 

Thus having a hard life, isn't it easier when things get hard? 

When you're going to the gym and you're like first weekend and this happens to everybody. 

Every new year, it happens to all of these fakies. 

[00:03:30] Isn't it easier once you start getting sore to then start lifting weights different, thus creating an injury that should have never existed, thus now have an excuse not to go to the gym so you can rest and recover and recharge, and then that catapults into a whole year passing by that you don't go to the gym? 

Isn't it easier to just say I injured myself so I can't go to the gym? 

[00:04:00] Or isn't it easier to say hey my kids are going crazy, hey work's got me caught up, hey Everything else is the reason why I can't make it to the gym?

Isn't it easier? 

To say that and use that excuse, thus living a hard life? 

Isn't it easier to not communicate with your spouse and that you just completely like argue with your wife all the damn time, because you don't know how to like open up and express yourself as a man? 

Isn't it easier to say I'm unhappy in my marriage versus like learning how to be vulnerable and open up to the wife that you wanted to marry that you propose to?

[00:04:30] Isn't it easier to say I'm just unhappy in my marriage, thus having a hard life? 

Now when we think about that, it's not so crazy to now say when we live a hard life, we live an easy life.

You see the smile on my f*cking face? 

I feel like somebody said this before obviously, but I feel like this is the first time I've ever uncovered it. 

First time I've dug it up for myself where I'm just like, “Oh sh*t, the f*ck does that mean?” 

[00:05:00] And it's exciting because, well, think about it.

When we go to the gym on the days where we don't want to, and we live a hard life, don't we get the body that we want? 

Isn't it easy to now have the body that we can be proud of? 

We eat right. 

And instead of eating sh*t food, we eat good food. 

We track our macros. 

We do the right things. 

Thus, we lose all the fat and get the body that we want.

[00:05:30] And now it's easy because we live the hard life. 

When we start going after our dreams and we tell our family, “Hey, this is what I'm going to do with my life.” 

And they say, “Ah, you know, you shouldn't dream too big.” 

And we're just like, “Well, f*ck it, I'm gonna dream big. Cause I want big things in my life. I want, I want the biggest and the baddest house. I want everything that I know I deserve. I'm gonna go after it, no matter what anybody says.” 

Isn't that the harder path? 

Because nobody believes in you, but you gotta believe in you. 

And then when you achieve success, isn't it an easy life now? 

[00:06:00] Because you lived a hard life? 

Isn't that crazy to think about?

Isn't it crazy to think that all it takes for you to win is to wake up early, 3am in the morning, 4am in the morning, 5am in the morning, before anybody else is awake. 

And when you want to snooze and you don't, when you want to go back to sleep and you don't, and you take the hard path, isn't the rest of the day easier?

Don't you notice that on the days where you wake up the earliest, you have more control? 

[00:06:30] Life is easier, because you have more time to breathe, to think, to understand. 

When we go the hard path, and we're fighting with our significant other, and we're trying these things. 

We want to change. 

And for some reason, like we keep getting in these arguments and straining our energy.

Isn't it harder to like, not emotionally react to our spouse, to our wife? 

[00:07:00] Isn't it harder to be patient, to be present and to learn how to just be the bigger person in moments and just be like, “Hey, you're right. I'm wrong.” 

Where nobody has to be right, but I'm willing to also say that, “I