Pushing Through the Hard Stuff
This is the time of year when all the New Year’s Resolutions and intents drop off our radar. It’s when we revert to the norm. We struggle to have energy and motivation to keep something new moving forward. In the book, The Road to Character by David Brooks, he writes about the need to push forward and preserve.
The whole book is focused on different character pieces we need, but which society has generally lost over the past 75 years. One of those character traits is perseverance. As I read, I couldn’t help but think of organizational re-orgs where we tried something for six months, and it didn’t’ work, so in the name of being agile, we flipped everything on end and started over.
Now, there’s merit to being agile, and there’s merit to change, but how do we know if it’s the time to change everything up or if we should wait awhile? If we were to use the stock market as our example, anytime things didn’t go our way financially, we’d buy or sell stock. We’d cheat ourselves out of the long-term benefit of waiting through the DOW Jones drop. We’d never see the recovery phase.
On the other hand, we’ve all watched situations where we’ve thought, “Why are you still working at that company? Why haven’t you changed jobs yet? Clearly the company has had enough time to change and act, it’s time for you to move on.”
How do we balance between these two concepts? As individuals, we need to ask ourselves some key questions:
- Am I changing my situation because this is hard or because it’s not going to change? If it’s just a difficult or hard time, it’s not time to change everything up. If you’ve waited and things aren’t going to change, it’s time to move on.
- What things can I do? Often, we focus on the things we have no control over, but when we focus on what we can do, we empower ourselves to take small steps, the first small steps toward the bigger goal.
- How will I feel once I’ve made it through this tough situation? Oftentimes if we can envision the good feelings and rewards at the end, we can push through. If we have no vision for success, we aimlessly wander and lose track of why we are doing what we are, and we walk away.
We all want to give up at times, but true character comes from perseverance and pushing through tough times. There’s a great Bible verse that comes to mind when things get hard. Hebrews 12:11 reads, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
Find a reminder this week to help you push through whatever hard thing it is you are facing.
Keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant, Sarah Gibson, helps organizations leverage the power of communication, teamwork and diversity to improve engagement and transform teams. To buy her book or inquire about her speaking programs, please visit www.sarahjgibson.com.
