You (And I) Can Do Hard Things
The next time you find yourself about to phone it in on a goal, shirk a commitment you made, or just plain give up, ask yourself something: Are you the kind of person who only does easy things? Or are you a person who can do hard things?
I spent a couple of days this week doing some rock climbing guiding for a group of young women on a YMCA camp trip. They had just spent six days hiking the 50 miles of the Cranberry Lake Trail, and without a day off, then rolled into two more days of trekking with me out to rock climbing crags to scale walls all day. Their mantra to one another was “You can do hard things!” Anytime someone was contemplating coming down before reaching the top or being self-deprecating, the phrase was pulled out: “You can do hard things!” When the counselors waffled on trying a climb themselves, again: “You can do hard things!” If they’d given their all and decided to come back to the ground, a slight variation was used: “You don’t always have to do hard things, but it’s important that you know that you can do hard things.”
It was heartwarming and inspiring to observe these young women lift each other up (sometimes literally) with positive encouragement. They recognized they each had vast strengths, especially when supported by their peers and role models. And they reminded one another that a life spent doing only easy things is hardly a life at all.
Sometimes the hard thing is scaling an 80-foot rock wall using only your hands and feet. Sometimes it’s speaking up with confidence and conviction to make yourself heard. Sometimes it’s getting out of bed to the goddamn stretches and push-ups. Sometimes it’s saying “I was wrong and I’m sorry.” Sometimes, as it was for me today, it’s powering through a 13-hour hike with a smile on your face and excitement in your voice while egging on your exhausted clients, even though your own knee feels like it’s on fire with every step.1
Doing the hard thing isn’t always fun. It’s often not the thing you want to do. There may be many reasons for you not to do the hard thing. But there’s almost always a good reason that you should do the hard thing. And I hope you remember that you can.
Update: Greg Morris was kind enough to link to this post, and he shared how it reminded him of the concepts of misogi and sumikiri (doing nearly impossible things in order to reach clarity and flow). It’s a good post, and now I have a new book on my to-read list.
This is post #7/31 for Blaugust 2024.
And sometimes it’s writing and publishing your daily blog post before midnight, even though you’re dead-ass tired and could just do it tomorrow instead.↩︎