The Hard Way

Sometimes you learn things the easy way. You listen to advice from someone who’s more experienced than you. You read an article on “best practices” for whatever you’re doing. And then you actually do those things, and it works out for you.

The information was out there. You followed it. And it worked out. Great.

But some other things you learn the hard way. You hear the advice. You read about what you’re supposed to do.

And then you do something else entirely. Even if you sort of, kind of have this feeling that it might not be the wisest choice.

And whatever it is doesn’t work out. Maybe it’s even a huge mess. Or what happens is downright embarrassing. But, still, it’s done.

This is the hard way because now you have to take a long look at what happened, what you did and what went wrong. And now you’re struggling. And maybe you’re indecisive. Or maybe you know that you haven’t got a clue what you’re doing. But you still press on.

This is the hard way. You think back on those people who gave you advice and the articles you read and you really wish that you had done those things because then you would have taken the easy way. But you didn’t. You took the hard way.

And then something happens. A breakthrough. Something goes right. You get a clue. And it feels rewarding because you struggled to get there. And now you feel like you’ve reached a peak. Maybe not even a peak, maybe just a hill. But still, you had to climb upwards to get there. And now you’ve gotten somewhere.

And once you hit that first peak, you feel like there are probably a few other peaks that you can get to and so you keep walking. And soon enough, the hard way is starting to feel like the easy way. Which is the way you should have taken from the beginning.

But you didn’t. You took the hard way.

And because of that, it’s now easy.