Handle Hard Well

We all wait for things to get easier….It will never get easier.  What happens is, you handle hard stuff better….If you go around waiting for things to get easier in life, it’s never going to happen.  Don’t think, “When is it going to be easy for me, like it’s easy for other people?”  It’s not; it’s hard for everyone.  Make yourself a person who handles hard well, not a person who’s waiting for the easy.  If you have a meaningful pursuit in life, it will never be easy.  People who handle hard well are the people who get the stuff they want.  Don’t get discouraged if it’s hard; it’s supposed to be hard.  Make yourself someone who handles hard well, and then, whatever comes at you, you’ll be great.  – Kara Lawson, Women’s Basketball Coach, Duke University


Predicting a Right Choice

The goal of making a reasonable decision is not to predict the future and make the right choice.  Predicting the future is impossible.  Rather, the goal of making a reasonable decision is to wisely consider what actions are most likely to lead to the outcome you desire, so that one can test reality, make adjustments, and take new action based on what you have learned.  --Steven R. Hobbs

Hard Work Wins

Hard work wins.  You get out of life what you put into it.  You cannot control the outcome, but you are one hundred percent in control of the effort.  And before you complain about what somebody did to you or said to you, go to the nearest mirror, look at it and say, what could I have done to change the outcome?  And no matter how good you are, how hard you work, sooner or later, bad things are gonna happen to you.  How you deal with those bad things will tell your mother and me if we raised a man.  –Randolph Elder in Dear Father, Dear Son by Larry Elder

No Regrets

People who say, “I have no regrets,” are not telling the truth.  They should truthfully say either, “I avoid thinking about my regrets,” or, “I am content with the regrets I have chosen.”  Every choice made in life excludes the opportunity for another experience, given the limits of time and resources.  If I choose to go to the mountains this weekend, I cannot at the same time go to the beach.  While I may prefer the benefits of going to the mountains, I am still missing out on the benefits of going to the beach.  I may choose benefits of self employment, but I miss out on the opportunity to have the relative stability of being an employee of someone else.  I may choose the benefits of not marrying, but I miss out on the opportunity of experiencing the depth of committed relationships of a spouse and children in a cohesive family.  There is a price to be paid for every choice, an opportunity missed for every opportunity taken, a regret to be had for every regret avoided.  The best we can do is to choose our regrets wisely.  --Steven R. Hobbs