“Short-term easy is long term hard. Short-term hard is long-term easy.” –Shane Parrish, The Knowledge Project

If you know it’s going to be painful, and it cannot be avoided, just do it. Start. Do the work.

This does not mean take an impulsive running leap off a cliff with no parachute.

Study the problem. Understand the challenge. Know what skills, tools, and support you need. Line them up, sharpen them, check the list.

But stop ruminating, overanalyzing, making excuses.

Get honest about your avoidance, see what it costs you. Calculate the value: Is the false, needling ‘comfort’ of procrastinating now worth the payment(s) you will inevitably make later?

It’s all so much easier said than done.

What do we need to get to, “Bring it!”? How can we overcome fear, discomfort, pain, perfectionism, and failure, to suck it up and move? Embracing the suck means facing the challenge with full frontal, dead on acknowledgement of the whole problem and all of its implications–and accepting it. That is the first step to changing anything, counterintuitive as it seems.

After that, ‘just do it’ means simply taking one step toward change, toward resolution, toward peace. No leaping, no parachutes. One step, then another, then another. Paced, thoughtful, informed, intentional, and, in the best cases, communal.

‘The only way out is through. The best way through is together.’ We can be with things the way they are, including how we feel about them, without judgment. Just be. Then act. When I think back at my ‘Bring It’ and ‘Embrace the Suck’ moments, I recall feelings of confidence, power to, and connection to my tribe. I feel strong, my posture straightens, I get taller. I trust myself to engage and grapple, and I know without a doubt that I have people who will be there for me when I need them. Turns out, when I really think it through, that last part is crucial.

So there it is again, my friends!! Relationship and connection! I had no idea that’s where this post would end. How fascinating, can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow!