Master the Struggle
Hey team! So, here we are. Summer’s coming closer and closer to the end here pretty soon when we’ve got just a few more weeks. I wanted to share with you another quote by Paulo Coelho. I think that’s how he pronounced his name. I’ve used a few of his quotes in the past. This one really stuck out and kind of hit me. So I wanted to share it with you on this beautiful early summer morning.
“The key is not the will to struggle but the will to master the struggle.”
It’s not about whether or not you’re willing to struggle; rather, you’re going to master through the struggle. Are you going to make it through it? Are you going to master what’s going on around you, even though it might be tough stuff, hard stuff?
It’s not easy, is it? It’s not easy to master the struggle, but part of our core values is resolve—never quitting, sticking to it. Don’t give up. Own it. These are the things that help us get to that core principle and process that we ourselves have deep inside of us. And that is to be valuable because nothing less will do for our families, our community, and the people we serve.
Are you able to master the struggle? Well, there are a number of things that come to mind for me that help me to master my struggles. One of those is family. My family helps me master the struggle. My boys help me master the struggle. Sometimes they are the struggle. But at the same time, our spouse can be part of our struggle. But at the same time, they help us get through the struggle of life and the things that we do. I can have a tough moment or a tough day or a tough week sometimes. And I can come home at the end of the day and have my littlest David come up, sit on my lap, give me a hug, and say, “I love you, Daddy.” All of a sudden, some of the struggle just melts away, and I appreciate that.
Other things that help us master our struggle are accountability with friends, having good friends, people that will take you out and go fishing, or have a cup of coffee or something and just look right into your heart and say, “How are you? How are you doing? Talk to me.”
Having those people in your life help you master your struggle, people that you can confide in, people that have maybe walked a few miles in your shoes, which brings me to the next thing: having good friends around you, accountability partners are really awesome, but another one of those accountability partners in your life should be a mentor.
Having mentors in your life, people you can rely on, people that have walked a few miles longer than you have walked in the shoes, in the same industry, the same way, having accountability partners, even in marriage, having mentors that maybe have been married a few hundred years longer than you have been married, having those accountability people in your life and mentors in your life are key to mastering the struggle of life. These are just a few key things that I can think of off the top of my head.
But at the same time, I want you to know that reading books, right? Find a book. I say it sometimes all the time when I’m doing orientation or when I’m just talking in leadership or like this on a Monday, Wednesday type message. I love to share with people and say, “You know, I read anywhere from one to three books every year just on the subject of marriage and on the subject of parenting and the subject of leadership.” Not because I have a bad marriage or because I’m a bad dad or maybe even now, I think I can say not because I’m a bad leader, but because I don’t want to be.
I have said this time and time again: an empty vessel has nothing to pour from. Right? You can’t pour anything out into somebody else’s cup if you yourself are empty. And so I read books on marriage because I want to have a great marriage. I read books on parenting because I want to be a good parent. I read books on leadership because I want to be a great leader. And so that’s another way to master the struggle because when you’re going through things in life if you are pouring into yourself and getting it from other resources and other places like mentors and like books and like having accountability partners and friends that will just listen and be around you and uplift you and not put you down in your struggle, you will find yourself being a master of the struggle long term.
It’s hard sometimes in the moment. It’s right, walking through deep valleys. They’re hot, they’re dry, they’re dusty. But sometimes, it’s that location in life that you find some of the really nicest rivers, swimming holes, or fishing holes right in those deep, drowsy walks down a dusty road to get to your favorite fishing hole. And so we have those moments in our lives when we have to walk through some pretty dark and dry places in order to find some of the greatest places of refreshment.
All right, so on this beautiful summer day, as the sun is getting ready to start coming up, I just want to wish you guys all a wonderful week. God bless you and remember, let’s be valuable because nothing less will do, and let’s master our struggle today and this week, getting through this month and next year. All right, God bless you guys. I’ll see you next week.