You Can Do Hard Things

I want you to take a moment and think about the title of this post. Now, look at the information below:

Characteristics of Hard Things:

• Hard things are difficult 
• Hard things are overwhelming
• Hard things make you feel scared and inadequate

Now read the following sentence:

 You can do hard things.

Doesn't that just lift the weight off of your shoulders? Suddenly whatever it was that was belittling you with it's scary difficult-ness seems just a little bit less difficult, right? Those five little words just made you feel better about yourself. Language is a powerful thing.

I have to admit, mantras don't usually work for me. Maybe they do when someone else is drilling them into my head, but not when I'm on the brink of some scary something and I'm trying to tell myself it will be okay. "You don't know that!", my brain says, "You're just saying that in an attempt to calm yourself down. And you better try something else because it's not working!" Despite my fickle brain,  "You can do hard things" is one of the phrases I've found that actually works. Whenever the going gets tough, wether it has to do with writing, or school, or (more recently) my driver's test, I say that phrase to myself. Why? Because  instead of filling my head with promises of everything magically working out, or making myself feel worse by pretending that what I'm trying to do is easy, those five little words actually make me believe that I can do it. Why again? Because I can! I think that every one of us is capable of doing hard things. We just have to put our minds to it. And that is what makes this phrase so powerful. It's the truth.

Armed with this new knowledge, you are ready. The time has come. Go out and write that novel, or ace that test, or climb that mountain. Yes, it will be difficult. But something tells me you can do it.