We are a week or so before I start back for my fall semester. I can’t wait to meet my new students and hopefully continue the chain of young adults whom I get to impact. I pray that my efforts on their behalf are useful. I love doing things for them and trying to show them how to be successful in life.
One of the points that I have to stress over and over again is just how much hard work is required. Somehow, over the past 20 years (maybe 30-40) is that the act of knowledge acquisition is an easier type of learning that that of, say, athletic skill acquisition or artistic still acquisition. I think, or at least I hope, that most people still know and believe that achieve your goals in something like tennis or piano playing or cross fit or knitting, that you have to invest time and effort into the attempt.
Somehow, over the past few decades, we’ve decided that academic learning takes no time and no effort. Or, we secretly know such to be false, but we continue to let our children believe it. Semester after semester, I meet students who have been led to believe that no effort and little time is needed to pass the class.
So, what I tell them day 1 is that the class will be challenging and that it takes diligent effort to make it through. Then I say that it’s like climbing a mountain. I promise that I will climb with you and even show you the secret hand holds, how to climb successfully, but I can’t climb it for you.
All of life is like that. No one can do your life for you. You have to be present and you have to go hard every day. The mountain is high and no one can climb for you. And really, would you want them to? Would you want to be at the bottom of a 14,000 mountain and then pay someone else to do the climb, planning to later claim that you made the ascent? Of course not. You WANT to be at the top of the climb, no matter the effort.
Some years ago, my family took a vacation to the Appalachian Mountains. While there I had to climb some in a nearby state park. Not surprising for an old country boy who was raised in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. My girls, all city kids, wanted to come with me. We all started to climb and it wasn’t long before they started to wonder aloud how much further. Tiredness and some irritability came next. But they kept coming….towards the end, there was a silent sense of determination. Sheer grit. But then, I could see the peak coming into view and I told them that the it was just up ahead. New energy took over and all three girls, along with my wife Kim and myself, burst out onto the top with a glorious view of the Valley far below.
As we stood there taking in the view, no one was secretly wishing that they had stayed far below with the van. They weren’t wishing they could just claim the climb, but know that another person had climbed for them. They were proud of the effort and excited in the success of the view.
Whether you are planning to head back to new college classes or merely starting another month on the job, dig in. Don’t dodge the truth of the need for diligent effort to do the work well. Make the determination now that while you will happily accept any help or advice, keys to success on the journey, you are will make the trek yourself.