“Light weights produce lightweights.” ~KW

It’s easy to sit. It’s hard to stand. It’s harder to climb. Do the harder thing and climb.

It’s easy to sleep. It’s hard to stay awake. It’s harder to pay attention. Pay attention.

It’s easy to complain. It’s hard to bite your tongue. It’s harder to find a solution. Find a solution.

It’s easy to find fault. It’s hard to see the good. It’s harder to praise. Praise.

It’s easy to blame. It’s hard to apologize. It’s harder to take responsibility. Take responsibility.

It’s easy to doubt. It’s hard to believe. It’s harder to take action. Take action.

It’s easy to tear down. It’s hard to repair. It’s harder to improve. Improve.

It’s easy to exist. It’s hard to truly live. It’s harder to come alive with passion and purpose. Wake up and come alive and start living with passion and purpose anyway!

Do the Hard Thing

Life is a journey, a challenge to be mastered, but more importantly, to be learned from. But lessons, and the growth they promote, don’t come to us by taking the easy path. Downhill is still downhill. It takes you to the bottom. Paths of least resistance have always been attractive … until you get to where such paths take us.

But learning to do the hard thing is the process of learning to receive the greater reward of a life well lived. Difficulty breeds toughness. Challenge develops moral, emotional and physical muscles. Ease develops nothing but softness and emotional immaturity.

So don’t be too timid about challenging yourself (or your children, for that matter). By doing the harder things in life, life becomes–in the long run–a much easier journey.

Happy people, after all, were not made happy by taking shortcuts and doing as little as possible. They were made by learning to navigate life with agility and equanimity born of overcoming difficulty and challenge.

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