Simple Ways to Turn Struggle into CAREER Development

Stop complaining about things when they're tough or when you're struggling. Struggling isn't just a part of life, it is the part that helps you grow. I'm blessed to be a high school football coach here in Charlotte, North Carolina. When practice is hard, which is quite frequently, it's football. It's a physical sport. There's constant complaining. The kids complain about everything. And it's like they're complaining as if things are going to change or it's going to change their circumstance or situation. And what they don't understand is they practice is supposed to be hard. So the games appear easy. That's a part of growth. And the primary thing that it impacts is your attitude. When you have a negative attitude, you have a negative energy. And that's something that you can control. And I get it. I understand. Comfort is a natural human instinct, and we all have it. But like everything else, it's about your mindset. In the book by Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, which is a story about the author, when he was actually in Nazi Germany during World War II, in prison, in the concentration camps. What man actually needs is not a tensionless state, but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.

And you have to understand, Viktor Frankl had a tremendous struggle. People are dying left and right all around him. He's witnessing this every single day. Yet he remained very hopeful because he understood that mindset. It's everything. He never lost sight of his future, even though most days it looked very bleak. Once you understand that struggle is a big part to gaining strength, it makes the tough times much easier. I can remember hanging out with my grandfather as a kid, and he lived in a rural area in Virginia where he had a horse, several chickens and a rooster. And I remember one day he grabs me, says, hey, let's go to the barn. And he wanted to show me that some of the hens had some eggs that were hatching. And so when we get up to the barn, one of the eggs is hatching. I can remember this little baby chick was struggling to get out. And naturally I wanted to go over and help that. My grandfather grabbed me and says, no, no, no, you can't help the baby chick. It'll die. He didn't know that. He was giving me a lesson in life. And 40 years later, now I still use this lesson today with my clients that I coach. You see that baby chicken needs to struggle to gain the strength so it survives. If I would have helped that baby chick get out by cracking the egg open for it, it wouldn't have had the strength to survive. And I see it all the time. Some people spend more time trying to avoid struggle than actually the struggle itself. Success comes at the intersection of struggle and support. Struggle has to happen for us to gain strength. I can't stress that enough. In every new year, many people put together New Year's resolution. The crazy thing is only 9% of people keep that resolution. Why is that? Because what they committed to is tough. There are obstacles, there's challenges. And you know what? It's easier to choose comfort. At some point in life, you're going to pay the price. You can either choose to pay it now and work through the struggles, or pay it later in some cases when it's too late to make the change. Be a part of the 9% my grandfather would have been 96 years old last month, and I know he'd be really proud to know that something that he taught me is a lesson that I teach and I use with all of my clients. And I know he'd be very happy to know that I'm helping others embrace the struggle so that they gain transformational growth. And if you're having a hard time and a tough time, take some solace and understand that it's part of the journey and it's a necessary part of the journey. Please subscribe and share my YouTube channel where all things will be leadership and personal development.