Life is really hard. We all have burdens to carry, jobs to do, and things that challenge us everyday.

We can let these hard things cripple us and keep us from living in the now, or we can understand that we are capable of doing hard things.

We can embrace the suck and conquer. We can grow and become people who handle hard better.

Kara Lawson, a Tennessee Lady Vol and head coach of Duke women’s basketball, has learned how to handle hard better. She has lost her coach and mentor Pat Summit as well as her father.

I invite you to watch this short three minute video because it will guide our discussion today and encourage you to handle hard better!

1. Life Gets Harder

It is a universal truth that life will get harder. The older you get, the more responsibility you will have. To succeed in life you must be a person who grows and learns in response to the increase in challenge.

When you were learning to ride a bike you started with training wheels. When that became easy, what did your parents do? They increased the difficulty and took the training wheels off.

Life works very similarly. The level of responsibility and difficulty increases, but so does the enjoyment and satisfaction when you learn how to handle hard well.

2. You Can Get Better at Handling Hard

The danger of facing harder and harder challenges is that eventually you will fail. In these low moments your response to failure is so very important.

Be the kind of person who speaks good things about yourself. When you fail, tell yourself that you can learn how to do it. You are the type of person who says, “With time and focused effort I can succeed.”

This attitude and internal perspective is called a Growth Mindset. To meet the new challenges you will face, you have to change.

To get better at handling hard, you must do things that are hard. It’s just like how you can’t get a huge bicep without doing a single curl or be in shape without running.

When things start feeling easy, that is a clear sign that you have grown and aren’t growing anymore. To do harder things in the future, choose something hard now so that you can grow to the level of the next challenge.

3. Handle Hard With Other People

There are the occasional challenges that we can’t face alone. We sometimes need to ask for help handling our “hard.”

This group of people for me I found at my church. I believe that together we are stronger and that we don’t have to overcome everything on our own.

I encourage you to find that group of people who can tell you truth and not just what you want to hear. These are the type of people who will encourage you and want the best for you. Find a group like this who makes you better.

4. Have Grace for People in Your Life

Let’s be honest. Life is hard and we are dealing with a lot at any given time. If this is how we feel, why do we sometimes believe everything is going perfectly for others?

Recognize that everyone around you is handling all sort of hard, may be sleep deprived, juggling schedules, and have dreams for their life they are working towards. When you interact with people, offer the same level of grace you wish people would offer to you.

When someone reacts strongly to you, have grace with them because that probably wasn’t the first hard thing they have gone through since talking with you.

Let’s be people who handle hard well and be gracious with other people who are handling their “hard.”

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Action Steps

How can you get better at handling hard? Find hard things to do and be prepared to fail. When you do, dust yourself off and try again. Find a group you can do hard things with and share your burdens. Do you have any stories about overcoming challenges in your life and completing something you thought was impossible? I’d love to hear about your experiences and how you have become a person who is learning to handle hard well!

If any of this resonates with you there is a good chance it will with your friends too. So while you are thinking about it share this article with them. I’ve made it easy for you with the buttons at the top of the email or web page :)

Go do something hard today!

Rock on,

Camden