Dear Younger Fred… if it's hard, let's do it hard…
You'll spend a lot of life trying to avoid discomfort.
Avoid tough conversations.
Avoid uncertainty.
Avoid failure.
Avoid the things that stretch you.
Because hard feels uncomfortable.
And uncomfortable feels dangerous.
But eventually… life teaches you something strange:
Most things are hard anyway.
Being out of shape?
Hard.
Training consistently?
Also hard.
Being financially stressed?
Hard.
Learning new skills and growing your career?
Also hard.
A struggling relationship?
Hard.
The vulnerable conversations required to grow with others?
Hard too.
And one day, while gasping for air during a brutal workout and not having barely slept in the last 36 hours due to your colicy baby...
"I can't do this."
"This is too much."
"Why did I sign up for this?"
Your body will want to stop.
And that voice in your head will get loud.
The negotiating voice.
The quitting voice.
The voice we all know...
And somewhere in the discomfort, something clicks.
You realize:
The hard never leaves.
You just get to choose your hard.
And if life is going to ask something difficult of you anyway…
why not choose the version that grows you?
Why not choose the hard conversation?
The hard workout?
The hard season of learning with children?
The hard thing that future you quietly thanks you for?
Because over time, something surprising happens.
Hard stops feeling scary.
And starts feeling familiar.
You begin trusting yourself.
You realize:
"I've done hard things before,"
"I can do this,"
"This is who I am!!"
And strangely…
confidence begins growing in the exact places discomfort once lived.
Younger Fred…
if it's hard…
let's do it hard!
Because the life you want is usually hiding on the other side of the thing you keep avoiding.
Baaaaam — that's it for today.
See you next Thursday.
Stay curious,
Fred
