Easy Hard Things

Updated: September 2022

The talk below has a great little couplet at the end of it:

Hard Choices, Easy Life. Easy Choices, Hard Life

Jerzy Gregorek

I love it for what is says about how I might be prioritizing work, or calling out my natural tendency of trying to make people happy at a cost to myself. There’s certainly no guidance about what those choices might be, or how to define them. But it’s a catchy little thing I now have in my pocket to help my mindset when work feels needlessly hard.

I was talking about this with a mentee, and she brought up a related saying that she keeps in mind, that helps close the loop:

Do the right hard things

It frames that initial phrase to make sure that the things that are hard should lead to meaningful outcomes.

If the hard thing is the right thing, doing it well will make life easier in the future. Which gives the opportunity for growth through new and different choices. Which, at the end of the day, is what makes work fun.

Here’s to making the right hard choices!