You’re going to pay a price for every bloody thing you do and everything you don’t do. You don’t get to choose to not pay a price. You get to choose which poison you’re going to take. That’s it.
Dr Jordan B. Peterson
Irrespective of what we do, who we are, where we are, and who we are with, life will be hard. Bad things will happen. Much of what happens will be out of our control. But we have to aim towards something and pursue our idea of a good and meaningful life.
To get there, we need to consciously choose our hard, and apply this thinking across all of our domains in life.
Going to the gym is hard work. Some mornings when the alarm goes off at 5:00am, I don’t want to get up and do my exercise routine. Other mornings I desperately want to turn off the alarm and go back to bed for another hour or two. I want to do what is easy. If I want a strong, healthy body, then I need to get up early, go to the gym, and lift heavy things. That is hard.
It’s better than the alternative. If I don’t do to the gym, my strength will degrade, and that will lead to health problems later down the track. Easy now, much harder later. I need to choose. My hard is going to the gym.
It’s hard to eat healthy meals. When I walk paste a donut in the shopping centre, I stop. My brain is telling me how tasty it will be. I don’t want to eat just vegetables, fruit, nuts and protein every day. I want to destroy a massive bowl of noodles. Eat all the coolies. Have take-out most nights. I know that doing this will lead to health issues down the track. I don’t want a hard senior life that is plagued with health issues. I’ll do what I can now to put me in the best position to have the least number of issues possible. My hard is eating healthy meals.
It’s hard to put your ideas and products out into the world. You’ll face rejection and criticism. It’s hard to feel unhappy and unfulfilled because you haven’t pursued what you’ve wanted. What hard will we choose?
It’s hard to stay motivated at a job you don’t enjoy. It’s hard to take the leap into the unknown, to be challenged in new ways and pursue your interests and curiosity. What hard will we choose?
It’s hard to set boundaries. It’s easy not too and hard to then get back on track and reclaim your time.
It’s hard to be courageous and stand up for what you believe in. To life the life of virtue that you want. Others will be disappointed. Some will take offence as it won’t align to their ideals. You’ll have to say no a lot and give up a lot of things. It’s easy to go with the flow. Then it becomes hard when you realise you aren’t living the life you want and that it’s not in alignment.
It’s hard to focus on the things that are within our control verses the things that aren’t. It’s hard to accept that despite our best efforts things didn’t go our way. It’s better than being resentful, jealous, angry, and all of the things. Not being able to let go of things makes for a hard life.
Life is hard. There is a price for every action that we take. Choose what your hard will be.