Hubby and I were chatting with a couple of young men last weekend. Mark, the younger of the two, is still in university but cannot finish until he completes his last course. Unfortunately, that course won’t start until January of next year leaving him at loose ends for over six months. He has found himself a job, in the industry in which he wants to work, but it is only part-time. I say ‘but’ yet it is so hard to find a job that he really ought to be congratulated.
At his job Mark has some flexibility in choosing the three days he will work, they just have to be consecutive. He has chosen Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in part because a friend at the company said that Monday was the busiest day with the most work. Hubby bristled! “What a great learning opportunity you are missing when you choose to avoid the hard work,” he said. That was met with a fair amount of back peddling and running around the subject though no agreement.
It’s been on my mind since and this morning the email from marketer Seth Godin was titled Doing the hard things. To me that was a cosmic wink - a little nudge from that greater being than me. It made me wonder what hard things in my life I was avoiding. I encourage you to read Seth’s blog as he talks about people like Henry Ford, guitar maker Rick Toone and others who do great work “that others would never attempt.” It is in doing the hard things that we get the most satisfaction, make the biggest contribution, and learn the most.
I’ve not found the answer on what hard things I may be avoiding yet and if you are interested you can ponder the question that Seth asked, “How do we do something so difficult that others can’t imagine doing it?”
I’d love to hear what you decide!