I’ve had a few people in my life lately who have shared with me their struggle with where they’re at in life. And it got me thinking. I have definitely struggled in the past, so I’m not calling them out like “Whaaaat? What’s this struggle you speak of??” But also, lately, I have been feeling like I’ve been struggling less. And I want to share.
Where does this struggle come from?
A struggle is essentially a resistance to what is. If you are struggling to get out of handcuffs, you are resisting that you are in handcuffs. If you are struggling to get out of a certain headspace, you are resisting that you are, in fact, in that headspace. If you are struggling to get rich, you are resisting the fact that you are not that and possibly even broke.
As people try to get out of this struggle through self-development exercises or more work (more resistance), I hear them say, “it’s a lot of hard work”. Ok I get it. I hear you. And I say this – while it may be hard and it may be work, I would disagree that it is ‘hard work’. Other than the fact of physical labor and physical work or exercising, I don’t believe there is hard work. Waking up with enough time to journal and meditate before your day gets started is NOT ‘hard work’. Waking up at 5am, for instance, may be hard but it’s not work. Even though you are waking up TO DO “work,” it’s not work. Journaling for 20 minutes a day is work, but it’s not hard physical labor. I would even go into it not being “work” but that’s for another blog post). Meditation (sitting in silence for 10 minutes) is not hard. For example, you would do the exact action with your body while waiting in a doctors office. As far as the physicality of it, it is the same as sitting in a waiting room. Take away the phone, maybe a magazine, and the people, and you have the same environment you would have if you were meditating.
Last night I uploaded three of my podcast videos to YouTube. I had been putting that off FOREVER because I thought it was going to be ‘hard work’. Was it work? Sure. If you consider sitting at my computer editing the videos and uploading them to YouTube. Although, it was work that I enjoyed (and I will enjoy the outcome), so what do you call that? And was it hard? The only “hard” part was that there were a couple things I didn’t know that I had to figure out. So I did a little Google search and learned how to do them. Truly, not hard.
In addition, I watch a lot of videos of successful people who are asked “What did it take to make it to the top?” and a lot of them say “hard work”. I don’t think they are explaining it the right way. They may have done a lot of work, staying up all night making and recording music, spending 12 hours on a set, countless hours on their computer creating their online business, etc. That is a lot of work. And sure, it must’ve been hard. But it wasn’t the WORK that was hard. It was the time spent, the energy exchanged, the commitment, the sacrifice of saying no to other opportunities. I think there’s a very fine distinction there.
When we are resisting doing “hard work” we think it’s because the work will be hard. But really we are resisting the commitment, the time, the energy, which are all completely separate from the work.
Instead of committing to doing the “hard work,” just commit to the work. Commit to taking the time to figure out how to do things you don’t know how to do, find out new ways to doing them, commit to being patient, commit to loving yourself through the process. You may even get to the work and find out that what you once thought was hard, was actually very easy, but your expectation of it being hard stopped you from even trying. Once you commit, the hard part is done. Now all that’s left is the fun. 🙂
I hope this helps you think of things a little differently. Maybe things you’ve been putting off? Or working a little too hard on? A lot of my learning about non-resistance thoughts and work come from Abraham Hicks teachings. I’ve recommended it to many people and it may resonate with you too.
Make yourself a priority. You’re THAT important. ❤
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