Challenges require a champion to defeat them. They are things we seek to accomplish – starting a business, quitting nicotine, becoming a professional athlete, or writing a book. Challenges are hardships that find us – a breakup, financial ruin, death of a loved one, or being laid off. The former is a challenge chosen. We aspire to do these because it is a dream or meaningful to us. There may be skills that must be learned or things along the way to pick up to reach them. It is hard to persevere through to the goal. The latter results in a negative impact. These are hard because a challenge must be faced to overcome the negative situation. Both climbing a mountain and climbing out of a rut requires the same skills. Do hard things.
Photo: Alma / CC BY-SA
The Struggle
Things are hard because they require effort and vigilance. Starting a business requires learning about the market and customers. It takes determination to face challenges with the outcome dependent on the entrepreneur. Becoming a professional athlete entails hours and hours of practice when nobody is watching. Time working out, recovering, learning the nuances of the sport long before any success may be had. Stopping a nicotine habit reflects constant vigilance of one’s triggers and effort to stay strong in each moment.
Negative forces can propel us. Being laid off may be an unwanted hardship but encountered anyway. The result may be out of the laid-off employee’s hands. Now there are hard choices that must be made. Do you go to the bar and drink your troubles away along with whatever is left of your savings? Do you choose to face the hardship and get back out in the job market? Use the layoff as inspiration to start the business you’d been meaning to but were waiting for the right time? Does the breakup force you to face that you must get your act together treating yourself or your partner correctly? Do you seek someone else to come into your life and save you?
The struggle through hardship creates better times. Avoiding hard things will lead to greater challenges. Do hard things.
How to Deal with Hard Things
Easy things are done without effort or thought. Hard things require attention and focus. The willpower, concentration, and/or mindfulness required to overcome a challenge will not manifest itself. I meditate, write, or run when I’m focusing on getting through hard things. That expression and corresponding physical action fuel me to address the challenges I have been faced with or chosen. Even something like writing a blog requires focus and energy that I may not feel I have to give. I’d rather play video games, read, go see friends, or any number of things before I face a challenge. Stepping up to the plate is more than half the battle.
Rise through the struggle to deal with both positive and negative challenges. It is the focus on the hard thing itself, finding peace in the challenge that leads to it being overcome. The good news about choosing hard things is that it is where life is lived. The rut climbed out of no longer imprisons. The mountain climbed provides a phenomenal view.
