Episode #161 Choose Your Hard

Three Problems

• If we don’t make a habit of doing hard things, we will experience even harder consequences of taking the easy way out.
• The path of least resistance, although initially comfortable, eventually leads to a place that is uncomfortable.
• Coasting is always backwards.

Five Principles

• Life becomes far less difficult when we acknowledge and accept that life is difficult.
• We cannot change the fact that life is hard, but we can always choose what makes it hard.
• Pain is not an adversary to resist but a friend to embrace.
• Proactive choices are more likely than reactive choices to lead to positive outcomes.
• Life may be hard, but it is often far simpler than we make it out to be.

Three Paradigms

• It is hard to be physically healthy, but it is harder to have poor health.
• It is hard to live on a budget, but it is harder to have insufficient funds.
• It is hard to wake up early, but it is harder not to have enough time.

Three Practices

• When faced with what feels like a monumental difficulty or decision, begin by identifying those small choices you can make right now.
• Evaluate yourself honestly by considering, “What choices yesterday contributed to my difficult circumstances today?”
• Identify one difficult choice today that would make life easier tomorrow.

One Perspective

• “Everything you want is on the other side of hard.” – Monty Williams