If you do what is hard, life will be easy. If you do what is easy, life will be hard. In this episode, Jen builds on these wise words by Les Brown and shares that while we may want to do what is easy first, real growth is found in doing the hard things first.
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SHOWNOTES
“If you do what is hard life will be easy. If you do what is easy life will be hard.” – Les Brown
I want you to take that quote in. It’s one of my favourites and it reminds me of my army days where I was taught that if something is hard to do it’s all the more reason to do it. There is so much in this quote that can be impacting your life – because you’re doing what’s easy first and not doing what is hard.
Why do we want to take the easy path?
Because it’s easier! Pretty simple. When I’m looking at something that’s easy and hard my brain defaults to “do the easy one Jen!” But I know from my experience that when I’ve gone the easy way and cut corners, it hasn’t brought me the results I wanted.
I’m going to break this down further – and of course I’m going to use surfing as the analogy. When you start surfing you initially start as a whitewash warrior. You hide in what I call ‘kiddie corner’. It’s the safe part where the waves have already broken and the shear momentum of white water pushes you along so you can get up, even though it’s a bit rocky.
The next stage in surfing is to be able to ride green waves. Green waves are unbroken waves, so you don’t have the momentum of the water and you are relying on being positioned in the right place by paddling to let gravity help you ride down the surface of the wave. To progress, it really is that big girl pants moment.
The easy thing is to stay in kiddie corner – because it’s still fun! But the hard thing is building the courage and strength to paddle through the waves and get out the back where it’s calm and then do what I find to be the scary part, doing a push up downhill at 20kms an hour.
Kiddie corner is great, it helps you build your skills so you can get up on the board faster, but it’s a very different ride to being out back. If you do what is easy life will be hard. If I stay in kiddie corner too long, which I well and truly did for the first few years of surfing, I won’t grow as much as I want to. Now I do the hard things, I go out back when the surf is my size and I’ve developed all the more as a surfer.
Find your tribe
A big part of this transformation is the fact that I’ve surrounded myself with a tribe of women surfers here on the Gold Coast. We call ourselves the Surf Witches and there are over 2,000 of us as I speak to you today. When we’re in the water we cheer each other on and you feel like a legend. With them beside me, I believe that I can do it.
This helps me to gather all of the evidence I need to do the hard things. I have a tribe cheering me on and I can see that people have gone before me.
Surround yourself with OQP – only quality people.
Success isn’t for everyone in everything in life. You’re going to get to a stage in one area and say no, it’s not for me. But at some stage we also need to get that breakthrough and surrounding yourself with only quality people will help you get through the harder things faster so you can have an easier life.
As another saying goes, you have to be willing to do today the things that others won’t in order to have the things tomorrow others won’t have.
I hate the cold. I used to never surf through winter, but my tribe encouraged me to start. Because if I missed surfing for the 4-6 months that it’s cold, that lack of consistency absolutely effects my surfing.
To have the things I want in the future, I know I need to get uncomfortable now to make it happen. So, for the last couple of years, I made the decision to winter surf. Is it easy? No! It’s like ripping of a band aid on those cold mornings. But I’ve made the commitment.
Urgency is a big factor in success. If you don’t do it today, chances are you won’t finish a task by tomorrow.Benjamin Franklin once said, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” It’s good advice for all of us.
I want you to remember this quote by Les Brown. If you do what is hard life will be easy – I promise you it will be.
Healthy Life Hacks
So, the healthy life hacks I want to leave you with today are:
- What have you been looking for the easy path with?
- If you are not getting what you want, focus on why, surround yourself with OQP and make it happen
Did you enjoy the podcast today? Please let me know by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. Every month I draw one lucky reviewer to have a free one-hour consultation with me. Also, remember to subscribe wherever you’re tuning in from so that you always catch the next episode.
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