Do hard things.

Lindsay Recknell Mental Health Leave a Comment

Had the absolute pleasure to attend the Canadian Mental Health Association – Alberta Division conference this week, #WorkingStronger. I left there with such a feeling of inspiration, motivation and to be completely honest, overwhelm. We heard from speakers who have accomplished so many great things in spite of, or maybe even because of, their own mental well-being challenges and the overriding theme was always…do hard things.

Think back to the people in your life you look up to, you model yourself against. I bet there’s something in their story, or how they conduct themselves, or through their words and actions, where they’ve faced hard options and choose to do the hard thing. So many people I know have accomplished such wonderful things by making hard choices and doing hard things.

In fact, I bet you can’t think of anyone you admire who doesn’t do hard things.

I truly believe that doing hard things is what makes us who we are. Builds our character. Builds the foundation for doing other hard things…makes doing the next hard thing a little bit easier.

Our youngest niece will tell you that doing hard things is the only way to learn.

That challenging yourself, stretching your mind and body, is how you grow and flourish.

Doing hard things builds resilience, strength to endure the next hard thing.

But hard things are HARD. And EXHAUSTING. And HUMBLING.

And totally worth it on the other side of them.

The pride I feel after accomplishing something hard is unmatchable. I don’t think there’s a real, true feeling of success after accomplishing something easy. Sure, there’s a check-box, perhaps or feeling good because what you did was beneficial for yourself or someone else. But it’s not the same depth of emotion as after accomplishing something hard.

The scope of scale of hard things can vary. Depending on the minute, the situation, my level of sleep, sometimes previously easy things seem ridiculously hard and on the flip side, some hard things seem a bit easier sometimes. Sometimes I’ll choose the easier hard thing to give me strength, confidence and courage to do the next hard thing.

However it works and whatever excuses…err…motivation, I need to do something hard, I’m in. I want to keep growing and learning and trying and failing.

How do you do hard things?

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