Be a Professional

Life is hard. You should be glad it is.

There’s only one way for us to live this life and experience real happiness. Unfortunately for us, that answer lies in the pain and discomfort. The challenge. We must lean into the pain . Without the hurt, we’d have no joy. Without the sadness, no happiness. Without the hard work, there’d be no reward. The beauty of life has two sides.

When we have those mornings where getting out of bed seems to be too much, we must push on through and embrace the challenge. (Don’t ever hit the snooze button! Ever!). Get up, make your bed, and be thankful for another day. Pain and discomfort was created for a reason. It was created to make us change, or to change the very thing that is hurting us. Pain is the engine for growth.

It’s so easy in today’s world to look for quick external fixes for our internal needs. They are everywhere. These quick fixes can easily become habits, negating us from experiencing the pain designed to change us for the better. We must embrace the pain and trust that the beauty and goodness exists around the corner. Why? Because it does. I know it does. You know it does too.

I know that every time I have felt pain, leaned into it, and gave it my best, I have always come out the other side a better human being. Always happier….and thankful for the challenge. Yet still, when I wake up in the morning and feel the discomfort, I am still tempted to pull those covers over my head and hide from the discomfort…even after everything I’ve overcome. Life never gets easier, I promise.

Painful things will happen to us all. We can’t control what happens to us some times, but we can control how we think about what happens to us… every time. When things don’t go our way, when we hurt, we must act like a professional and lean into it. A professional shows up everyday and gives their best. A professional strives to master their craft everyday; no matter what. We all share one common craft, it’s called life. Become a professional at it, there is no other long term solution.

Its not easy to see and believe this in our society today, but I have grown to know that a man is not to be judged by the size of his garden. A man is to be judged by how he tends to his garden, regardless of its size. We all experience bad weather. We all need to till our soil.