| My wife is the biggest Riley Green fan ever. She follows him on social media and has for years now. We’ve seen him grow from opener for the opener all the way to selling out big shows now. He seems pretty down to earth and like a guy I’d love to hang out with. I just don’t want her and him to meet!!! 🙂 Anyway, she showed me where Jacksonville State University (her alma mater and his too) conferred on him an honorary doctorate. Pretty cool for him and for the university. He delivered the commencement address and one line he left them with really resonated with me. He said that in life you should “grab the heavy end.” I love this very blue collar reference and all the things that it implicates. Here’s my read on it. Before you read my words below, reflect on what you think it means or what it says to you. 1) Don’t be afraid to do the harder road. If there is an easy path and a hard path, take the hard one. Think about Robert Frost– “The Road Not Taken” quote, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” I know this poem has been commonly misinterpreted as a call to individualism, but I see it as a call to not be afraid to do the harder choice. Sometimes there is therapy and learning simply in the process. Taking the shortcut tends to eliminate some of the process and therefore the learning. You grow through adversity and challenge 2) If you pick up the heavy end and leave the light end for your brother, you help them out. Eliminate the “why me?” cry and replace with the “why not me” mantra. 3) There is satisfaction in accomplishment. Accomplishment almost always comes with some level of failure. Picking up the heavy end means you have a higher probability of failure but you also have greater satisfaction in accomplishment. Everything in life is a trade off. Knowing you can do hard things only happens when you do hard things. And knowing this about yourself makes EVERYTHING less scary. It’s a compound effect. I’d love to hear your take on this very, very simple but profound quote. What does it say to you. How can you apply it and share it. |
