“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.”—Jimmy Dugan character, A League of Their Own
Everything of Purpose—everything worth doing—is going to be hard. If something is easy, there is no reward in doing it.
Embrace the hard. Go at life 100% one-hundred percent of the time–be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Expect life to be difficult. Seek the challenge. Don’t sit back and think that good things are just going to come your way. They won’t.
American clergyman, Gordon B. Hinckley, wrote: “Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.” This statement is so true. Success is cultivated. It requires tending and effort. Otherwise, it is choked by invasive “weeds”.
What are goals, if not challenges? Remember the “overload principle”? Growth comes from progressively extending one’s comfort zone. “No pain, no gain”, so to speak. One must accept a “healthy margin of difficulty” to grow (Heath Eslinger). So, to what extent are we challenging ourselves? To what extent are we challenging those we lead?
Personally, I love the process of growth. I like to challenge myself. When I wrestled, I wasn’t very good—barely on the “successful side of mediocre”. It never bothered me, though. I just loved the work that the sport required. I still don’t feel like I’ve had a good workout unless I am drenched with sweat. In a match, my chances of winning increased with every period I survived without getting pinned. Why? Because I was better conditioned than my opponents (thanks to my coaches). It is a hard sport. I loved the hard. That’s what made it great.
I don’t like easy. I am an academic who is far from the smartest in his field of expertise. This is okay, because I love the challenge of learning. I personally think I teach best the subjects with which I most struggle. It’s the hard that makes it great.
Consider what you are most passionate about. I suspect it is something at which you have put in much effort to become successful. Easy is not fun. It is downright boring.
If life is feeling a bit overwhelming, pause. Take a moment and consider the opportunities that are before you. Shift the attitude from “I have to” to “I get to”—great advice from my friend, Coach Andy Lausier—and embrace the hard.
At the end of the day, go to sleep with gratitude and the “pleasant sense of fatigue” that comes as the reward for hard work. In everything you do, be sure to “leave everything in this room”. In other word, give it your all, today, and know that you will be better for it, tomorrow.
There is no satisfaction in easy. It is the hard that makes life great. Carpe momento!
“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”—Larry Bird