The right thing is rarely easy

Many things that matter are not easy. Even in the day-to-day.

Making time to help someone is not easy.

Speaking up when you witness racist or sexist behaviour is not easy.

Choosing not to scream every time your kids get on your nerves is not easy.

Sitting down with somebody to express your discomfort is not easy.

The point is that if you always seek the easy, if you try to find shortcuts in most situations, if your first thought is about how you can save some time, some money, some energy, it’s very likely you will often end up doing the wrong thing.

Nobody likes the version of themselves that does the wrong thing more often than the right one.

The superior companion

If you fall in love with an outcome, you will never notice that the world around you is moving, that the context is ever changing, and that the outcome, in the end, does not provide that sense of reward you had anticipated.

If instead you fall in love with the journey, you are in the present, here and now. You see the changes, you notice the details, you are awake and ready, you have a place to fall back to when the unexpected becomes reality.

The journey is just a superior companion.

Within you

When you scream, scratch, offend, shut down, retort, bite, barricade, wound.

That’s all about you, isn’t it?

It’s not the situation, the others in the room, your boss, your partner, your kids.

It’s something deep down within you.

And when you are calm, the most you can do is go and search for it, label it, put it to rest.

It will be easier the following time.

Turn the narrative around

A negative turn of events is not inherently bad. A positive turn of events is not inherently good.

You ought to be able to see the good in the bad as well as the bad in the good. Not to be detached from reality. Not to be problem child or the naïve dreamer. Not to stay away from grief and joy at all costs. But to be able to appreciate the power that you have to turn the narrative around.

Surprising

There are so many variables in any open position, in any grant available, in any reward you might be pursuing, that it is actually more surprising when you succeed than when you fail.

And by the way, neither success nor failure is a reliable measure of your worth.

The sooner you get used to it, the more you can focus on building your own measure.