Letting Go of Easy

I was chatting with a friend today about some struggles I'm going through and at one point in the conversation I said, "I just want it to be easy."

Like seriously. I'm so exhausted by the regular struggles I'm finding myself in. And I bet I'm not alone. I can guarantee if you're reading this you've felt that way before, too. It's part of our human nature to want to avoid the hard stuff.

We don't want to struggle. We don't want to fight. We don't want to experience pain or disappointment or discontent. We want it to be EASY.

But the minute that sentence was out of my mouth today, I took it back. The Universe hit me with a good old dose of wisdom and I realized how wrong I was.

I don't want it to be easy. Because there's no learning in easy. There's no growing in easy. Easy robs me of the lessons life is has to teach me.

What do I have to offer anyone else if not the wisdom I gain in all these experiences?

If I want to help other women recognize their passions, I have to learn to recognize my own. If I want to teach them to tune into their inner voice and make their dreams come true, I have to figure out how to get there myself. In order for me to teach from a place of wisdom and authenticity, I need to know where they've been. I need to take my own path toward my dreams, through all the hard stuff. Only then can I help others walk a similar path.

Sure, easy would be nice. It IS nice when things happen easily, when life seems to line up perfectly in front of us so that we can just coast along for a bit. But easy can't be all there is.

So today, after my vent session with my friend, I'm choosing to be grateful for the hard stuff. It's in all that hard stuff that I'm going to grow and learn and lead. I'll take the easy when it comes--and I'll be damned grateful for it. Then, when the hard stuff comes calling, I'll take that with gratitude, too, knowing I'm learning and growing and stretching so that the next challenge might seem a little easier to face.