Jessica Soroky continues her series Leadership is a Choice.

So many quotes capture how difficult things are always worth the effort. The quotes are often used as motivators and work for those who choose to believe them.

“Nothing comes easy that is worth it”

“Will it be easy…nope. Will it be worth it…Absolutely. “

So why then would one look at a journey of progress like The Leadership Gift™ Program and think, “Hey, this will be easy!”

Don’t get me wrong, there are times when a breakthrough or realization is extremely easy to put into action, but usually it out-right sucks. It hurts to look that close to who you really are as a person and it’s extremely difficult to be strong enough to choose how you want to be going forward.

Thinking about my journey there have been more of the cool moments where things were easy than there have been hard moments where it wasn’t easy or fun. What I find interesting though is that we are so quick to forget all the easy good moments and fixate on all the hard moments.

But I get it.

I do it too. I write about the struggles and hard moments more than I write about the easy ones. Part of that is a fear of perception. If I write a blog about all the things going amazingly well in my life and how much of that is because of my personal leadership story I am sure I will turn some people off and others will take it as bragging.

So what do I do? I fixate on the struggles too. I talk about the moments where I wish and dream of the days before I was woken up because looking in the mirror in that moment is so hard I would rather stick my head in the sand and ignore it all.

My fixation comes from a place of processing, cleansing, and releasing that moment. For the most part, it works. Once I write the blog and send it to Christopher and John for editing I meditate on the subject and release it from my mind.

The times when that isn’t enough, when it is really stuck in my head, I keep reminding myself that when I am ready to learn what I am supposed to learn from this – I will.

Let me repeat that – Every struggle you face is trying to teach you something. Only when you are ready to learn that lesson, will you learn it. So when you are at your lowest or wondering why this is all so difficult, remember – You just aren’t ready to learn that lesson yet, and that’s perfectly, absolutely, wonderfully ok.

Just like all those quotes the difficult times in your personal leadership journey are so incredibly worth the good moments to come. For every moment of struggle, pain, or discomfort there are countless moments of freedom, power, and a sense of being awake in your life again.

So as we look to this new year with a clean slate don’t focus on how hard it will be, allow for that and focus on setting your intentions for the life you are going to live in 2016.

Get obsessed with your intentions, act like you’ve already accomplished them. Believe in the vision you have for this next year as much as you believed in Santa when you were little.

It’s out there… the reality you want is simply waiting for you to put in the work and grab it.

More important than anything… Don’t treat this like your typical resolution and give up after a few weeks. Cherish it… feed it and help it continue to grow.

The objective isn’t perfection it’s progression.

Here’s a secret to start the year…even when it sucks and you would much rather quit, remember the pain you feel is a sign of progressing you are moving forward so keep going – don’t quit, I know you can do it!

Secret number two – Don’t set an intention for the entire next year, start with the next 24 hours. What can you do now to help you take a step closer to the big picture you see for the entire year?

Here’s to the blank slate of possibilities right now!

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Jessica Soroky, CSM

Jessica is a Certified Scrum Master with over three years of practice in agile delivery and seven years of team leadership. She is also the youngest participant in The Leadership Gift™ Program and its growing worldwide community of leaders and coaches. After five years of nonprofit development through Nellie’s Catwalk for Kids, Jessica continues her leadership journey in state government, not-for-profit, and private sector leadership studies.

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