I don’t know who wrote this. If you do, let me know.
Choose Your Hard.
The first time I heard this, I was working in corporate wellness back in 2013. I can't remember who said it to me, but we were talking about how hard it is for employees to get in shape and stay in shape. At the same time, it’s hard to be unhealthy.
The person I was talking to said, "It's hard to be fit, but it's hard to be unhealthy. Choose your hard."
That statement connected with me instantly.
Over the years, I have worked on myself physically, mentally, and financially. None of this work happened on its own. I had to make a choice to show up and do the work. Some of it was hard, but the outcomes have made my life better.
Whenever, I think, "This is going to be hard," I remind myself if I don't do it, life is going to be harder. I make a choice to choose my hard and pick the choice I know will make my life better in the long run.
Choose Your Hard became something that was obvious to me, but I didn’t realize how few people in the world had encountered this idea.
A few weeks ago, I saw the image above going around LinkedIn. I hadn't seen this particular message, but the idea was the same: Choose Your Hard!
It received a ton of likes and comments ranging from, "I really needed this," to "Yeah, but what about...."
The thing that surprised me was how many people hadn't already heard this message.
My curse of knowledge made me assume this was something everyone already knew. Whether they applied it or not was a different story, but I believed most people had heard some version of this idea.
While I was surprised in the moment, I moved on with my life and forgot about Choose Your Hard for a few more weeks.
I follow people on LinkedIn who post ideas that connect with me.
I try to create new content and post everyday, but some days, it's not happening. When I hit a wall with my own writing, I comment on other people's posts, and I encourage anyone following me to do the same.
Last week, I read an article by Justin Welsh about what's wrong with LinkedIn and what to do about it.
The summary is that, unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn doesn't give you the option to be notified when someone you follow posts something new. He suggested reviewing the posts for people you want to engage with, usually people who have more followers than you, and to create a bookmark of their LinkedIn posts so you can quickly see if they have a new post or not.
When they post, be one of the first people to comment.
I followed his advice and created bookmarks for some of the people on LinkedIn I enjoy, one of which was Justin himself.
Coincidentally, Justin posted something similar to Choose Your Hard. Since I was checking in on the people I was following, I saw his post and commented on it.
I made the following comment:
After I posted the comment, I started getting notifications from people who liked the post. Others commented on my comment. My profile views started going up. I started getting notified I had more followers. I received connection requests.
I’m not sure exactly how many followers and connections I gained because of this comment, but I know the comment got 82 likes and 12 replies.
Again, I was surprised at how many people had never heard of the concept of Choose Your Hard. And like me, it connected with them right away.
I could have read Justin's post and said, "I've heard that before, everyone knows that," but I didn't.
I took the time to engage and add something to the conversation.
I took the time to take something I had learned along the way and share it with others.
I don't think I changed anyone's life, but who knows who may have seen Justin's post and my comment and thought, “I needed that today.”
Who knows what might come out of one of the new followers I picked up from this one single comment that required no mental exertion other than to share what I know.
What can you learn from this?
When someone gives you advice, give it a shot. I read a post that told me to try something new on LinkedIn. I put the steps into action. You know what? It worked. I found a great post I could comment on when I wasn’t creating my own posts for LinkedIn.
When you are creating your own content, if something works, keep using it. The single comment on someone else’s post turned into this blog post which may turn into its own LinkedIn post and Twitter thread.
Get past the Curse of Knowledge. Share what you know, even if you think people already know something. You’ll be surprised what you can give to the world.
Choose Your Hard. Is it easy to set up processes and systems to help you connect with more people on LinkedIn to get your message into the world? No! But it's a lot harder to get your message out when no one has followed you because you don't engage.