Why Is It so Hard?
David Freund, Chief Leadership Officer

Have you ever asked yourself, “why must this be so hard?” or commented, “why can’t this be easier?” I’d like to pose the question, “what if hard is good?” What if there’s a reason that it needs to be hard? What if hard gives us the greatest likelihood of success? Over the next few weeks, I’d like you to take a journey with me; a journey that hopefully will have all of us truly appreciating the hard.

You may have wondered where I’ve been. It’s been over a month since my last post and the reason for my absence is I’ve had to deal with some hard stuff. It all started on a beautiful Tuesday night in January when the first hard thing I came face-to-face with was some hard-packed snow and ice on the ski slope. My skis stopped, but I didn’t, resulting in a failed attempt to fly, followed by a rather hard landing. My right forearm was the first part of my body to land, followed by my chest and face. This all resulted in broken landing gear in my right shoulder, which, after a few doctor visits, resulted in the replacement of that landing gear.

During the 2024 Live2Lead, Michael Jr. commented, “I was thinking about what I was thinking about and how I was thinking about it.” The last four weeks have had me spending a lot of time doing precisely that. I know it sounds like senseless phrasing but so much in our life depends on what we think about and how we think about it. I’ve had to ask myself a lot of “why” questions and I’ve had to wrestle with the frustration of needing to accept help from other people. When you spend many nights lying awake your mind can take over, and unless we really think about what we’re thinking about and how we’re thinking about it, we can quickly find ourselves in a downward spiral.

This morning, I listened to Darren Hardy’s daily Darren video, “Your Secret Weapon Against Life’s Challenges.” My key takeaway was that hard is actually very good. The challenge is seeing hard as good and not wishing for easier or better times. Over the next few weeks, I want to share with you how we can move from wishing things were better to appreciating the hard. Let me make one thing very clear from the beginning: I’m in no way happy that I fell skiing and ended up needing shoulder replacement surgery. I’m not at all happy that I have to go through the pain of a broken shoulder, put an extra burden on my family, or that I’ve lost out on the remainder an amazing ski season. What I am saying is when things in life occur that are hard, we can learn to leverage them for growth. Author and entrepreneur, Jim Rohn said it best, “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.”

Darren Hardy shared three tips for learning to handle “hard” better. Let’s dive into tip number one: “Win What’s Next”. As we go through life, we set goals, we make plans, but then obstacles get in the way. Sadly, at this point, most people quit. They view obstacles as a roadblock when, in fact, they’re an opportunity. The key at this moment is to look for a win, any kind of win. Anything that will move us forward is a win, and we should celebrate it. We often think we can just shift our mindset when we have to get moving but we have to do something that moves us forward, and as soon as we do our mindset shifts from helpless to achieving.

In my next post, I will share my wins and dig into the second tip: “Entrench Support.”