Are We There Yet? vol. 173
Kara Lawson is the Duke University Women’s Basketball Coach. In one of her talks to her team, she spoke about something that probably has impacted all of us during our lives, whether in sports, our jobs, our families, or almost everything that happens during our lives.
She noted “how we all in life wait for things to get easier.” We just have to get through whatever seems difficult right now, and it will get easier. If I can just get through these meetings, this rough patch with a child, or a recovery from an injury or a health scare, life will get easier. She emphatically states that it never gets easier. What happens is that you become someone who handles hard stuff better. “She further notes that once she sees her players handling hard better, “we’re going to make it harder to prepare you for life.”
Why does life have to be so hard? Coach Lawson tells us “Because if you have a meaningful pursuit in life, it will never be easy.” Is it easy to raise a family? Is it easy to move ahead in a job? It takes hard work, and the journey is full of setbacks, failures, and more challenges. “Any meaningful pursuit in life, if you want to be successful, it goes to the people who handle hard well.” She tells her players not to be discouraged. It’s supposed to be hard. But the rewards are worth the journey.
If you want to see the entire address to her team, you can view it on YouTube here.
Take care and stay safe.
BOOK:
Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy
When Andrew McCarthy's eldest son began to take his first steps into adulthood, McCarthy found himself wishing time would slow down. Looking to create a more meaningful connection with Sam before he fled the nest, as well as recreate his own life-altering journey decades before, McCarthy decided the two of them should set out on a trek like few others: 500 miles across Spain's Camino de Santiago.
Over the course of the journey, the pair traversed an unforgiving landscape, having more honest conversations in five weeks than they'd had in the preceding two decades. Discussions of divorce, the trauma of school, McCarthy's difficult relationship with his own father, fame, and Flaming Hot Cheetos threatened to either derail their relationship or cement it. Walking With Sam captures this intimate, candid and hopeful expedition as the father son duo travel across the country and towards one another.