The Hard Things

Updated: December 10, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minutes stage: complete

Not long ago I read somewhere online the phrase "Do the hard things early in life".

On the surface, the phrase is simple enough.

It makes sense to do the hard things early in life because one has more energy and fewer responsibilities.

But it is also a call to action.

We don't know how much life we have left.

It's OK to plan for the future, but as Marcus Aurelius said, we could leave life right now. So we should act accordingly.

More than once I've been guilty of postponing things—like getting married—or not embarking on a new project because the time didn't feel perfect. Or because I felt I didn't have the necessary skills.

But waiting for the perfect moment to start or do something is a recipe for disaster.

Time doesn't wait for us to be ready. Life goes on, no matter what.

So I've been pondering on this phrase a lot and am committed to not become like Giovanni Drogo in the "Tartar's Steppe" , forever waiting for a war that never arrives.

This doesn't mean becoming "Yes Man!".

Rather, as I’ve written before, it is about mindfully embarking on my projects and work towards my objectives knowing that time is finite.