Embrace The Hard Things by Andrew Patterson

The stomach bug got me down this week and kept me from putting up the guest post.  But here it is now.  Read it.  Think about it.  It's good.  I'm always so blessed to get to post pieces from my brother.  It is hard to put into words the respect and love I have for him.

I was talking to one of my OG’s. For those unfamiliar with that vernacular, “OG” is urban speak for “old wise man”. The topic of our discussion was marriage and I asked him, “How do you do it? How do you stay married for decades? What’s the secret?”

His answer made a lot of sense to me. He said, “One thing we try to focus on is always getting through the hard conversations right away, and moving on. Once you take care of the hard things, you get on the same page and your relationship can improve from there.”

To me, that seems like a really smart approach to me. I look back on some of the hard conversations I’ve had to have recently and I realize that 1) They actually weren’t as daunting as I assumed they would be, and 2) Lots of needed progress has stemmed from those conversations.

As a youngin’, my older cousin used to always kick my ass in Madden. One day I was at his house playing the computer and he snatches the controller out of my hand. He checks the settings and says “See, that’s why you’ll never beat me. You got the game on ROOKIE! If you can’t beat the computer on All-Madden, how the hell are you going to beat me!” Being a former athlete, it was clear do me that doing the things I wasn’t good would give me the greater chance at improving overall. Doing the hardest drills and playing against the toughest opponents is the best way to achieve progress.

I think if we should extrapolate the idea of embracing the hard things in all areas of life. Whether it is career advancement, relationships, education, flirting with more attractive people, accepting and engaging in what’s hard could be a fruitful practice.

A rare photo of my two favorite "hoop ball" players together