When you wake up strap on your 40lb plate carrier, do some strength training and deep creative work- photography, video, slideshow creation, writing, etc. Not for “self improvement” but for self mastery
Nietzsche emphasized doing the hardest tasks first as a sign of strength, discipline, and the will to power. In “The Gay Science”, section 304, he writes:
“What is it that distinguishes those who are noble? That they are capable of reverence—and of giving themselves tasks.”
And in “Ecce Homo”, he says:
“I know my lot. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous—a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision conjured up against everything that had been believed, demanded, and held sacred so far. I am not a man, I am dynamite.”
While not directly phrased as “do the hardest task first,” his philosophy encourages confronting discomfort, chaos, and difficulty head-on. He believed one must will suffering and hardship as a path to growth and greatness:
“What does not kill me makes me stronger.” (Twilight of the Idols)
And in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, he speaks of the three metamorphoses—camel, lion, child—where the camel is the stage of bearing heavy burdens:
“What is heavy? thus asks the load-bearing spirit; thus it kneels down like the camel and wants to be well laden.”
This metaphor implies choosing to carry difficult responsibilities, voluntarily taking on weighty challenges as the first step in transformation.