Yes, it’s still hard. Be kind.

A few months back, I wrote about how “The harder thing is the right thing”.

What is obvious and non-trivial a the same time is that it doesn’t matter how many times you chose to do the harder thing, doing the harder thing is still harder. Like tossing a coin, the 50–50 probability of the outcome doesn’t change every time you toss it. Using the same analogy, it’s harder to get the same face (doing the harder thing) consistently.

• It’s harder because it doesn’t become easier to consider options we don’t like.
• It’s harder because it doesn’t become easier to assess complex problems with multiple causes.
• It’s harder because it doesn’t become easier to accept that failure is inevitable.

What we can do though, is practicing to recognize we are picking the easier path, that we didn’t even consider the harder option. Practicing is the foundation of human achievements, from those of Olympians to those of artists, from those of scientists to those of managers.

While it isn’t hard to agree on the value of practice, it’s harder to do it. It came together for me listening to the audiobook of Rising Strong when the following saying from the Asaro tribe of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea was read out by the book author Brené Brown:

“Knowledge is only a rumor until it sits in the muscles”

What it is often missed is that practicing means to put your own oxygen mask on first. To be in a place where you can be of help to others. To recognize where they are. To be kind, not nice.

All views are my own.