The Hard Stuff

I start a lot of things. Most of them I fail at, get sick of, find too hard, or simply don’t put in the work to make them successful. I have read and have written that for you to be truly an expert at something you have to put in at least 10,000 hours at whatever it is. If you want to be good at basketball, you have to put in at least 10,000 hours of practice and you will be good, even more to be great.

A corollary of that rule is that in order to get to the “good stuff” you have to go through the “hard stuff”. Does any of this sound familiar?

“I want to be a writer, but I don’t want to have to write all the time.”

“I want to play sports, but I want to make sure I make the team before I try.”

“I want to sell whatever, but I don’t  want to do the marketing and talking to people.”

We SO want to be successful without putting in the hard work to get there. It is very rare for people to just “fall into” wealth and expertise. We just want the “good parts” but don’t want work it takes to get there.

As a manager of three shifts I could pretty much set my own hours for work. I had to touch base with all three shifts so sometimes I would start at 3:00 am and leave at 1:00 pm and I can still remember people saying to me, “Must be nice to go home early!” They thought I had the good stuff without any of the hard stuff.

John Steinbeck said, “True things gradually disappear and shiny easy things take their place.” I think what he was saying is that we give up the hard stuff so easy. Did you ever think that the reason it is the “hard stuff” is the same reason there are so few doing it and that there is tremendous opportunity at the end of that hard stuff? Successful people, however you describe it, are successful because they did the hard stuff. The VERY THING you are seeking is at the end of the “hard stuff”!

Parents face the “hard stuff” every day. Disciplining a 2-3 year old is the hard stuff you have to do to have a respectful teenager and well-adjusted adult. Being consistent with your kids, loving them enough to give them boundaries – is the hard stuff. It is easy just giving them whatever they want so they quit whining and complaining but think of the kind of teenager you are building?

Do the hard stuff because it pays off in the end.

Do the hard stuff because success is at the end of it AND that is the only way to get there.