It’s hard to get yourself to the gym and prepare healthy meals.
But it’s also hard not having the stamina or strength to do what you want to do or taking medications with unpleasant side effects.
It’s hard investing in yourself with growth experiences.
But it’s also hard to sludge your way through problems alone, not making much progress, not gaining the insights that lead to growth.
It’s uncomfortable to reach out to people you don’t know and aren’t sure it will go anywhere.
But it’s also uncomfortable sitting in isolation, staying stuck, or spinning in your problems.
It’s uncomfortable trying something new.
But it’s also uncomfortable replaying all the same struggles for yet another year.
So, which hard will you choose?
The next time you’re faced with a decision and the resistance you feel is palpable, consider which type of hard you prefer.
When I think about things in this way, it brings clarity to the real decision I’m making.
It helps me get in the driver’s seat of my actions instead of reactively going with whatever impulse captures me in the moment.
Often what feels easy in the moment is short-term pleasure bought at the price of my long-term gain.
What feels easy now (watch a few more episodes, eat that cookie dough, postpone the gym, hit the snooze button again, avoid the conversation, don’t read the book…looking for a friend here! Can anyone relate??) is often sowing the seeds of my future angst.
Hard is (usually) a fact of life.
But choosing my hard feels good.
It feels powerful.
This is powerful because it’s an expression of my agency to create what I want for my life.
And YOU have this agency too, my friend!
It might not happen instantaneously. It might be an up and down, two-steps-forward-one-step-backwards type of process, but steady progress in the direction of our goals is what we’re after.
How about you?
