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'm wrong in this moment.”

Isn't it harder to do that because of ego and pride?

Isn't it harder to, to open yourself up and say, “Hey, babe, this is why I feel this way. Back when I was a kid, back with my parents, back in other relationships, this is how I was treated. So I always lash out on sh*t like this, but I know this is not you. This is more me.”

Isn't it harder to do that?

[00:07:30] But when you do that, what happens?

The marriage strengthens communication inside of the marriage.

It's easier because you took the hard path.

So when we think about this concept of we live a hard life to have an easy life. It's such a beautiful thing, it's a beautiful way of looking at it.

And I've been up since 3am today.

I built content for the entire week.

[00:08:00] I spent time with my daughter 'cause she woke up early and she decided to be up at 5:00 AM in the morning.

But I already got my work done.

I got to create content with her.

I got to spend time with her.

I got to snuggle up, I got to do my meetings, do my coaching calls, did everything that I needed to do to attack the day.

I worked on my business, not in my business.

[00:08:30] I went to the gym, dominated, focused on my nutrition was on lock by 5:00 PM I outperformed most people in a month, in a quarter, in half a year, in a year, literally.

Because I chose the hard path, which is why my life is easy.

When I wake up early, and most days, I don't want to stay awake, most days I want to sleep in.

It's not actually a thing where like you wake up and you're just like, “Oh yeah!”

Motivated all the time.

It's not how it works.

You're just like, “Oh, Jesus Christ again. I got to do this again.”

[00:09:00] I've taken the hard path for so long that my days are easy to win.

It's easy to have time.

It's easy to make time because I've made the time through sacrifice and through discipline.

When I said I was going to get my body back after military disability, after the major car accident in 2019, where me and my wife spent over six months in physical therapy.

[00:09:30] Where my left side of my body was like this because the muscles were so tightened from the collision that one of my feet were actually higher than the other.

Which is crazy because it was pulling on the bones.

That's where I came from and I told myself I'm gonna get my body back.

I'm gonna get back.

I'm gonna get right.

[00:10:00] And then I did and it only took six months for me to go from where I was to seeing my six pack again to having my muscles popping again, feeling good again, feeling lean.

And I look back on some of my old videos.

I'm like, “Jesus Christ I didn't realize how round my face looked!”

But I chose the hard path when I couldn't even do a push up I won for the day.

I said I did half a push up.

I'm f*cking winning.

That half a push up turned into a full push up.

That full push up turned into ten.

That ten turned into a hundred.

That little weak ass trying a pull up that I couldn't even do on day one turned into one solid pull up.

Turned into two.

Turned into three.

Turned into five.

[00:10:30] Turned into ten.

Turned into fifteen.

Turned into twenty.

Haven't done that sh*t in a while.

But it was showing up every single day on the days where I didn't want to, especially when sh*t just hurt the most, living that difficult life.

Now it's easy to do all those things that were hard once.

It's crazy when you think about life this way.

I do the hard things in life so I can live an easy life.

I sacrifice, so I can enjoy.

Isn't it crazy?

[00:11:00] To just realize that if all we do on a daily basis is seek discomfort, do the hard things, and learn to enjoy doing the hard things, enjoy waking up when we don't want to, enjoy meditating in the freezing f*cking cold, enjoying journaling in the quiet of 3 to 4 am, just time with yourself.

[00:11:30] Having something like just completely rock your day because you've got kids and they just decide to randomly wake up and just to learn how to be present and appreciate the now and appreciate the moments.

Isn't it crazy that you go to the gym even after you just worked a whole ass day and you're just like, “I'm gonna get it in because I told myself I would.”

When we start seeking that discomfort, we start enjoying the hard things.

So life is easy now.

And I think most people don't understand this.

And most people, unfortunately, never will.

That's why most people are unhappy by the end of their life.

[00:12:00] That's why most people end up in divorces.

What is it, 50%?

Jesus Christ!

Just don't get married at that point.

Or, level the f*ck up in your life.

So that way you don't burden all of the stress and overwhelm onto your partners, which causes, what?

Divorce.

When we think about living the difficult life, the thing is, if you're not used to that life, if you're surrounded by weakness of the world who just, they shy away from that life.

[00:12:30] It's very hard for you to realize what's normal.

But when you surround yourself with people who live this sh*t on a daily basis, that just take the hard path.

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*ckin 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*ckin motivated? How are you still pushing?”

[00:13:00] 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*ckin I need to be that. I need to adopt that. I need to learn that operating system.”

And it was through proximity.

That allowed me to become that disgruntled Marine.

The one that can do whatever the f*ck, whenever the f*ck.

Because it was required of me.

And to take that into life, it's the most valuable lesson.

To be able to continue to choose the hard path.

[00:13:30] Even when you don't want to.

And the thing is, I learned that way before the military.

I just didn't know it yet.

Ten years old, everything got stripped from me.

I've had the hard path since ten.

Even before that.

Going from a third world country to the United States.

And being the outcast.

I've lived a hard life.

It just wasn't a choice before, now it's a choice.

I choose the hard path, because I want a peaceful and easy life.

[00:14:00] And people will hear that and they're like, “Oh, you're not supposed to want an easy life. Life is not supposed to be easy.”

Yeah, motherf*cker.

It's not easy for you, because you don't do what I do.

I want you to understand, like, why this is so exciting.

It's like a revelation.

[00:14:30] If the secret to life, if all we have to do to win at this game, for the rest of our lives, is to slow down for the moment and to ask ourselves, what are all the hard decisions I'm not making right now?

And all we have to do is make decisions on every single one of those things.

And we automatically level up.

We automatically achieve the next level because we finally done the things that we didn't want to.

And those very things are the things that were preventing us from our breakthrough.

[00:15:00] Do you understand how freeing is it to know that the rest of your life?

Is literally just waiting for you to choose the hard path now.

It's the scariest thing too.

Because when you choose that hard path, then you just have to have faith.

That the decisions you make are the right decisions, they're the right calls.

[00:15:30] And you have to choose that.

Your purpose is bigger than you.

Whether you believe in God, whether the universe, whether it's a life, you have to surrender to the thing that's calling you.

[00:16:00] If the thing that calls to you, it's deep within you, tells you to take the hard path and you're just like, “Bro, f*ck man, I don't know right now. Right now is not a good time. If I do that, I might be putting my family in danger. If I do that, I don't know what's going to happen on the other side. If I do that, like what, what, how much time is it going to take until like I get something out of it though? Like I can't just. Sacrifice, I can't just do that.”

But can't you?

Isn't that the whole point?

[00:16:30] Isn't the whole point to push yourself all the way to that limit and just be like, F*ck, I don't know. I don't know what the f*ck this is gonna do.

I don't know where this is gonna end up.

Something's calling me over there.

And it's the hardest path to just submit to the process.

It's the hardest path to just truly have faith and surrender.

It is the hardest path to just be and to live in the moment.

[00:17:00] And to choose the hard path, it is the hardest f*cking path.

[00:17:30] And when you go through all of that and you finally see that light at the end of the tunnel for some reason everything changes and everything just gets easy just flows and you just become so confident and calm because you know now to trust yourself to trust the voice to trust and life becomes easy.

And if you become aware throughout this entire process throughout this journey, you'll see that.

There's signs.

You'll see that something calls to you.

[00:18:00] The question is, are you gonna have faith in yourself and are you gonna have faith in your purpose and take that hard path, even if time doesn't permit, even if the money doesn't permit, even if things don't make any f*cking sense?

Why you would do this right now when you're barely making it? A

[00:18:30] Ad you just f*cking move and you decide, “I chose the hard path, the difficult path, because I want an easy life. And I'm willing to sacrifice and do whatever it takes for as however long it takes to go above and beyond to go further than anybody's ever gone before. And I have faith that walking this path will bring me to the light.”

The question is, are you going to surrender to that calling?

Or are you going to override and say, not me, not now, maybe later.

Remember that later never comes.

Your purpose is calling to you.

Your [00:19:00] purpose is waiting.

On the other side of that decision, that you don't want to make right now, the hard call.

Make it.

Commit to it.

Decide.

And stay the path.

See what happens when you live a hard life.

Over time, when you learn how to embrace that process, you'll look up one day.

Life will be easy.

[00:19:30] Because you did the hard things that nobody else was willing to do.

That's the show.

Don't just listen to everything I just f*cking said and do nothing with it.

Take everything you learned, go out and execute.

Send it.

[00:20:00]

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