This quote infiltrates my busy mind, hides in sporadic screenshots in my camera roll, and is likely buried in text message threads with my close friends. So I take it like scripture and try to live by it. I used to recite the one-liner in my head to motivate me to do the workout, to carry out hours of Organic Chemistry homework, and to fix problems I wasn’t responsible for.
Somewhere between our extra practice problems, the hundreds of miles run, and the unpaid advice we give, the hard thing becomes the rest. The dopamine rush from checking boxes on to-do lists becomes addicting, stopping productivity feels like a sin, and not doing a workout at six in the morning feels out of the norm.
We can do the hard thing – go to interviews that make our stomach jitter, have tough conversations, train for the half marathon. But we don’t have to. It’s important to ask yourself the why, behind the urgency to accomplish something that is a challenge and requires some mental resilience. Is the ‘hard thing’ attached to some sort of moral value? Is it only satisfying someone else’s approval?
“We can do hard things, but we don’t have to.”
A yoga teacher of mine planted this quote on my yoga mat during savasana one early Friday morning. I live by it now. A subtle reminder that life isn’t only about being the most optimized version of yourself, pushing your physical activity to unrealistic heights, or getting the next promotion. Maybe it’s all giving yourself permission to rest, taking a deep breath, and choosing yourself.