Presenters
Source
The Unavoidable Truth: Embracing the Hard Things for Real Growth 🚀
Hey there, fellow developers! Ever feel that nagging feeling, that thing you know you need to tackle, but just… haven’t? It’s not necessarily that tricky bug in your current sprint, but something bigger, something persistent. You’re not alone! Today, we’re diving deep into why we, as humans and driven professionals, tend to sidestep the tough stuff and how embracing those challenges is the real secret to unlocking our potential. 💡
The Siren Song of Shortcuts 🧜♀️
Let’s be honest, our brains are wired to conserve energy. When faced with a complex problem, our first instinct isn’t always to dive in headfirst. Instead, we’re brilliant at finding workarounds, clever hacks, and alternative routes. This isn’t laziness; it’s a natural human tendency to reduce cognitive load and get ahead. 🧠 And sometimes, these shortcuts work! We bypass the obstacle, achieve a quick win, and feel a surge of accomplishment. This success reinforces the behavior, leading us to look for shortcuts everywhere. We start to believe that complex challenges can always be circumvented.
But Here’s the Catch… 🎣
The truth is, some aspects of our careers, lives, relationships, and even hobbies demand that we do something difficult. Something messy, slow, and requiring deep thinking. These are the tasks where we might have little skill initially, where repeated failure is part of the learning process. These are the hard things.
The Shadow of Procrastination: What Are You Avoiding? 👤
It’s highly likely that you, just like most of us, have a “hard thing” lurking in the background that you’ve been actively trying to avoid. Now, not everything we postpone is crucial. But often, the things that hold the most value and potential for growth are precisely the ones we shy away from.
Why do we do this? We procrastinate. We find a million other, seemingly urgent, tasks to fill our time. We tell ourselves we’ll magically stumble upon an easier path later, a secret shortcut to our desired outcome. But more often than not, that same obstacle will reappear, and reappear, and reappear. 🔄
Examples of Those Lingering Obstacles:
- Domain Knowledge: You know you need to deeply understand a specific technology or business area to operate with authority in your current role.
- Relationship Building: You’ve been avoiding conversations that could mend a strained relationship with a colleague, your product manager, or even your boss. Perhaps you don’t even have conflict, making it even more tempting to avoid solidifying that connection.
- Skill Development: You aspire to be a great engineer, a master of a language like Python, but you’re relying on books, tutorials, or AI, instead of the real learning that comes from building. 🛠️
The Power of “What If”: Visualizing the Impact ✨
Imagine for a moment that these avoided tasks will never disappear on their own. Write down two or three of these “hard things” that you know, if you had already addressed them, a problem would be removed, or you would have grown significantly.
- If you had repaired or deepened your relationship with your boss, perhaps you wouldn’t feel so anxious about job security. You might feel more empowered to explore alternative roles or teams within the company.
- For aspiring Pythonistas, the “hard path” isn’t just reading a book or watching a tutorial. It’s building things. Over and over. Getting feedback from experienced engineers. Pushing yourself to apply what you’re learning in challenging projects. There’s no “easy button” to becoming a great Python developer; it’s built on a foundation of hands-on experience and constructive criticism. 👨💻
Facing the “Why”: Unpacking Our Resistance 🧐
So, why haven’t we tackled these critical, hard things? We often tell ourselves we’re “too busy” – a convenient excuse that’s usually a fabrication. Or, we cling to the hope that an easier way must exist. Our minds race, trying to devise a strategy to bypass the difficulty.
The difficult, yet honest, answer is that we need to give up on those faster, easier, lower-investment alternative pathways. We need to make a conscious decision to embrace the hard path.
The Pain of Choice: Cutting Off Optionality ✂️
Committing to a hard thing is uncomfortable. It’s not just the act of doing it, but the decision to do it. This decision means we’re letting go of a multitude of other possibilities, closing off our options. This act of choosing is painful because we are opting into a significant investment of time and energy, and opting out of everything else. This loss of optionality is a core reason why starting is so incredibly hard.
The First Step is the Hardest (But Most Rewarding!) 👟
I encourage you to pick one of those hard things you’ve identified. Make a commitment, right here, right now, to take the first step. It might be scheduling that difficult conversation with your boss, or dedicating a specific block of time to build that challenging personal project.
- Commit: Write down your commitment.
- Act: Figure out the very first tangible action you can take.
- Execute: Take that first step.
Motivation is fleeting. It might get you through the initial surge of energy, but it won’t sustain you when the inevitable challenges arise. When relationships get awkward, conversations don’t go as planned, or you stumble and make mistakes – that’s when the commitment to your underlying reason for doing the hard thing will carry you through. 💪
Reinforce Your Resolve: Why Are You Doing This? 🤔
When you encounter setbacks, it’s tempting to backpedal, to reopen your options, and search for another way. Resist this urge. Come back to this message. Remind yourself why you chose this difficult path. What specific growth, what career advancement, what personal fulfillment does this hard thing unlock? Staying committed to that core motivation is your strongest ally.
A Final Encouragement: Trust Your Intuition 🌟
While we didn’t delve into when your inner voice might be leading you astray, it’s very likely that you possess a strong intuition for things that need doing – things that are difficult but undeniably worthwhile. Trust that intuition. Embrace the discomfort. Because on the other side of those hard things lies the real growth and the accomplishments that truly matter.
Thanks for joining me on Developer D! Until next time, embrace the challenge and enjoy your tea. ☕