What is one of the hardest things you’ve ever had to do?
Perhaps you have to think about it for a minute, or perhaps you have an answer right away. If you had asked me this question twenty years ago, I almost certainly would have told you learning how to ride a bike.
I spent day after day, week after week, month after month, year after … okay I’m sure it didn’t take me a year to get it, but it took me a long time – especially considering I was learning in the grueling heat of the south.
My balance was terrible – and I mean terrible! Both legs from the knees down had a painful number of bruises. I remembering starting out balancing with one foot on the ground, the other on the pedal. I’d give myself a push and start with the pedal at the same time, but for some reason finding the second pedal proved most challenging.
If I could start out with both feet on the pedals, say if someone were feeling generous enough to balance me and give me a running start, I could pedal along for quite awhile – especially if I avoided the sandy patches. But somehow the transition of one foot on the ground to two feet on the pedals was difficult and often ended painfully.
But I was determined to join my older siblings and friends on their bikes so I persevered! And I’m so glad I did! Every hard thing I’ve had to work through has made it that much easier to work through the next!
Ten years ago, in my early twenties (or really, late teens), I started an online business. It was the first business I had ever started and there were so many details I didn’t anticipate having to navigate.
I started off slow and small. My profit margin was tiny, but somehow it really added up! God truly blessed my efforts! I designed websites, tidied up pages of code, sold old radio shows on CD and books. Selling books in high school was my introduction to selling online back in 2005 and though my business and inventory has changed more than once, I still have an online business.
I continue to face difficult things in life, just as anyone does. Business can be hard and so can life. But with confidence in God and a can-do attitude incredible things can be accomplished!
One thing I love about doing hard things is that typically the first time you navigate them is the hardest. It will never be that hard again. I’m sure it’s the unknown that makes it so hard – and then once you have an idea, a hint of what to expect, it’s just not that difficult again!
So let me encourage you, don’t grow weary through hard times. I promise, what you have the ability to learn going through them will fall surpass the difficulty!
As I approach hard things – which I believe no matter who we become or how much money we make, there will always be hard things – I hold fast to the assurance that hard things draw me closer to God. They make me trust more fully in Him and they strengthen my courage! And all those things are exceptionally wonderful!
Tell me about something hard you have gone through or perhaps are still going through. What are you learning? Or perhaps you need encouragement that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Comment below or email me personally at hope@theamericanlady.com. I look forward to cheering you on, learning from you, and encouraging you!
Until Next Time!
Hope.
PS. Doing hard things helps us to grow – to become so much more than we used to be. I shared another life lesson about working hard here: https://www.theamericanlady.com/2018/08/08/work-hard-a-life-lesson/