How would you like to be like these men? George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Thomas Jefferson. The truth is YOU CAN. The secret to having the success they had was this... they were willing to Do Hard Things. They made sacrifices to accomplish this, and they followed a success formula. And if they did hard things, then who’s to say we can’t. We were sent here to fulfill a mission and we can either answer to the call, or ignore it. However most people don’t know how to accomplish their great task. I have been at that point myself, but in reading this book I have found a way to Do Hard Things. My success as well as yours is based on five basic fundamentals necessary to complete your mission. I am going to share with you this success formula.
1) Make sacrifices.
2) Break the Chains of society
3) Step out of your comfort zone.
4) Ask God for help.
5) Do Hard Things!
1) Make sacrifices. “Where some might look down on or excuse young adults, God calls us to be examples. Where our culture might expect little, God expects great things.” We are the Hero Generation, and as such we have the potential to be great, if we want to. But we must be willing to do hard things. God calls us to be examples, but who should we be examples to? As LDS youth I believe that we are being examples to the whole world of what our church is like. This is a big task but it is possible if we can realize that God expects great things of us, and that we can accomplish anything if we want to. The world today does not expect us to be great as “teenagers,” but in the past, youth have carried great responsibility. George Washington is my hero because he was not content with being mediocre, he wanted to be great, and he was willing to pay the sacrifice. He became the Major over four militias when he was 19, that was a great burden, but he was willing to do hard things. If we are willing to sacrifice, we will be great!
2) Break the Chains of society. In “Do hard things” there is a story about elephants that are trained in India. “When the elephant is still young, his owner takes him from his mother and shackles him to a large tree—with a heavy chain around his hind right leg. For days and week, the young elephant will strain and pull, trying to break free, but all he succeeds in doing is causing the shackle to cut deep into his leg. He gives up and accepts the idea that he can’t go anywhere when there is something around his hind leg. Soon the owner can replace the tree with a post and the chain with a piece of twine. Theirs is now nothing but a piece of twine around his ankle, but there are heavy shackles around his mind.” The reason that the twine holds the elephant is because every time the elephant feels any pressure it stops moving, even when the pressure is coming from a small piece of twine. Unfortunately, we are like these elephants. The teenagers of today are bound by twine, which they think are chains. They have chains in their minds that disrupt their vision of the truth. Regrettably, these chains have been placed on us by ourselves; we have forged these heavy chains, and willingly put them on. This is because most youth can sometimes lose their sense of vision, me included. I have had many times were I have lacked vision to see the future. And when I say vision, I don’t mean seeing with my eyes, but seeing with my heart. When I was 11, I had NO IDEA of what I would be doing later on. Now I know that I will need the skills of writing in my mission in life, but back then, I HATED writing. I thought that it was COMPLETELY unnecessary, and a waste of my time. Luckily, I struggled through those times and now I love writing. This is just one of many examples from my life, where I have lost and regained vision. In this example, I lost my vision of the need that I would have for writing, but due to the help of mentors and parents, I regained my vision. My hope is that this paper will help you too regain your vision.
3) Step out of your comfort zone. In “THE DREAM GIVER”, Ordinary lives in the land of Familiar. In Familiar everyone does the same thing as everyone else. Everyone is in their comfort zone. Ordinary receives the urge to do a Hard Thing. But everyone else tries to stop him because it’s different. Ordinary completes his mission and proves to the world that it is possible to do something great. We as youth must be “Ordinary”, not ordinary. If we do we will be successful. The hardest part about doing something hard is that to do that we must get out of our Comfort Zones. THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE UNASHAMED says, “I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity.” This is what I believe. Those “positions” are part of a comfort zone. All of us have circles of friends that we associate with the most, and all of us have different places where we feel comfortable, but sometimes doing what right takes us out of these places, and the companionship of our friends. We should do something not because it is what’s “Popular” and because it is in our Comfort Zone, but because it is the right thing to do.
4) Ask God for help. During our country’s birth, the Constitutional Convention was having a hard time writing the constitution. Benjamin Franklin gave a speech in which he called the delegates to prayer. He said, “A sparrow cannot fall without his notice. Can an empire rise without his aid?” Afterwards they started praying at the beginning of their meetings and very quickly the Constitution came together without any further obstacles. This is just one in MANY examples. This example shows that wanting to do hard things is not the only step to accomplishing great things. We MUST ask God for help. I know this and I use this knowledge every day. When I am writing my papers I listen for inspiration, and by doing this I can improve my papers, and continue to progress until I am ready to Do Hard Things. By having God on our side we assure ourselves success because no one can stop God. Asking God will also help us to know if it is the right thing to do.
5) DO HARD THINGS! The other four steps are completely useless without doing hard things. After you have prepared to be ready to do hard things, you need to take action, and begin doing hard things. If you don’t, then all of the preparation and education that you have gained will be a waste of time for you. Doing hard things will likely be harder than the preparation involved, but if you utilize this success formula that I have spoken of, I guarantee that you will succeed.
These are the basic steps involved in Doing something HARD. However in most instances there are extra steps specific to your mission. These five steps are not the only things to do, and to do something hard you must be willing to do all involved, not just these five steps. These steps will guide you, but you must be willing to complete the other steps needed for your different missions that you will accomplish. Doing hard things is not easy but it is possible, and as long as you remember that, you and I will always have the strength to succeed. These steps work, and they have been proven many times before now, and will be proved many times in the future. I have used these steps and have proved them myself. GIVE THEM A TRY!
