YOUR STRUGGLE, YOUR CHOICE
For most of us, including maybe you here today, the struggle is real. There's no denying it and no avoiding it. Especially if what we're doing is meaningful and significant, the challenges of daily life are inevitable. Ironically, though, it's not the existence of those challenges, but rather how we choose to see them - and what we decide to do with them - that actually reveals a lot about who we are, and a lot about how worthy we are of winning in the areas that matter most. Champions are unique and set apart in many ways, including in their winning approach to struggle. Let’s look at a few important choices that define the champion's perspective, and see how each one applies to us here today.
1) Champions choose to embrace the struggle. Human nature encourages each of us to take the path of least resistance, to avoid the challenges and to cling at all costs to any comfort we can find. We're pretty good at creating this vision in our minds of effortless success. That's why so many people end up resenting the struggle. But this is a naive and in many ways ignorant approach. It’s foolish for any of us to expect that our meaningful achievements will come easy. So the first step in success is acceptance. Each of us have to accept that choosing to compete for something that matters means choosing to invite some struggle into our experience. Resenting the struggle is evidence that maybe we’ve got a naive, or ignorant, or even foolish perspective on what winning requires from us, or maybe it’s just evidence that we aren’t actually willing to pay the necessary price. Embracing the struggle, on the other hand, is evidence that we see clearly exactly what winning is gonna take, and that we’re willing to pay the price anyway.
2) Champions choose to endure the struggle. Angela Duckworth is an American researcher and the author of the outstanding book Grit, which she defines as “passion and perseverance for long-term goals.” If there’s one word that defines the champion’s winning pursuit, it would be that word. Champions are gritty. They have embraced the long and often difficult road to success, and they’ve accepted that their journey is gonna be filled with plenty of twists and turns, probably some detours, and even a few roadblocks along the way. There’s no telling what exactly today’s experience might include, but in many ways that's irrelevant. The champion’s decision to endure has already been made. It’s worth stopping to consider today whether or not you’ve made that same choice. Do you have the passion and perseverance it takes to keep going? Are you gritty enough to win? Those are questions you can bet you’ll be required to answer again tomorrow.
3) Champions choose to enjoy the struggle. Did I just say…enjoy the struggle? What kind of sick and twisted individual could possibly enjoy their challenges and difficulties? That's a fair question, and believe me, I get it. This is one of the hardest choices for any of us to make. But I should clarify that I’m not defining enjoyment here as some fleeting feeling, and I’m not suggesting that you should be smiling, skipping, and singing your way through your struggles today - although that would be impressive. I’m talking about a deeper level of personal pride and self-satisfaction that comes with recognizing that your struggles are actually evidence that today you’ve chosen to step in the arena and compete. I’m talking about the pride and satisfaction of recognizing that this challenge you’re facing proves that what you’re doing is meaningful and significant, and that this difficult moment provides you with an opportunity to validate again today who you are and what you’re all about. I’m talking about the pride and satisfaction that comes with knowing that today you’ve chosen to take another step closer to the success you say you’re after.
The struggle is real for each of us, including - I’m guessing - for you here today. There’s no denying it and no avoiding it. But I hope you can see that the decision you get to make there in the midst of your struggle is real, too. You can’t deny that or avoid that, either, that you and only you are the one responsible for how you choose to show up today, and how you choose to respond in your moments of testing. Whatever's coming for you in the day ahead, I want to encourage you to choose the way of the champion. Embrace it. Endure it. Maybe even enjoy it. It’s not easy, but it is possible, because ultimately it’s your struggle…and your choice.