After this product launch is over.
After we sign this big client.
After we complete this project, things will get easier.
After this season is over.
After I get this job.
After I finish these presentations, things will get easier.
After the wedding is over.
After these college applications are finished.
After I have seven figures in my account, things will get easier.

Here’s the Friday headline:

It doesn’t get easier; you learn to handle hard better.

Period. (Or if I wanted to be hip, “Periodt”!)
That’s it. That’s what happens. We learn to adapt to handle hard better.

We become someone who handles hard stuff better. This is a mindset shift that has to occur.

And right when you think you’re starting to handle the hard stuff better, life seems to get a little bit harder. Because life never gets easier.

There is no easy bus to board; no easy button to push.

If you have a meaningful pursuit in this one life of yours, it will not get easier.

But that is ZERO reason to get discouraged and pack it up. The job is not to find a way to make things easier (I think we’ve quite hammered the point that that’s not going to happen…).
You have the opportunity to become someone who handles hard well.

The wood sign in today’s picture sits on a table in my office. It’s a reminder to me that I can do hard things. I am becoming (always a work in progress) someone who can handle hard better.

I’m trying to stop looking for it to get easier; instead, I’m looking for ways to be able to handle hard better. 

Jim Rohn once said, “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” 
Stacy Berg Jackson once said, “A wish is not a plan. What’s your plan?” 

So here’s a plan to help you handle hard better.

  • Win What’s Next – In hard or easy times, just win what’s next. Win the next task, not the project. Win the next conversation, not the entire day. Just focus on winning what’s next.
  • Support with Support – Surround yourself with positive input, positive people, and positive routines. Get an accountability partner to help you paddle through the muck. Get a coach!
  • Lighten Failure – The stepping stones of failure build the pathway of success. Bad steps are informative. They’re information for iteration; pay attention to them and learn from them. They’re valuable.

What’s your plan to learn how to handle hard better?