Choose Your Hard

It was the summer of 1987.

I was working for a company that cleaned and repaired sewer lines and manholes.

Most days you could find me down in a manhole, patching cracks—hopefully after someone had properly blocked access for any unexpected sewer showers.

Hopefully.

There was that one time...

But that's another story.

On this particular day, I had been moved to a crew, cleaning sewer lines along a rural road. Another guy and I were flagging traffic from opposite ends of the work zone.

We were far enough apart that we needed radios to communicate.

It was actually kind of fun.

Until both radios died.

No backups. No extra batteries.

Oops.

We had a choice.

We could complain about the radios and everything we didn't have—or figure out how to keep traffic moving safely.

So, we found a stick.

I stopped the first car, handed the stick to the passenger, and said, "Give this to the guy at the other end."

He looked at me like I was crazy.

But he took it.

And it worked.

Car comes through. Hand off the stick. Reverse traffic. Repeat.

Most people actually loved it. They became part of the process.

I'm pretty sure a few people were disappointed when they didn't get to carry our homemade baton.

I've thought about that day many times since.

Life gives us hard things we didn't choose.

A tire blows. The car breaks down. A project goes sideways. Someone lets us down. The plan falls apart.

We don't always get to choose the hard.

But we do get to choose what we do with it.

Complaining is hard.

Blaming is hard.

Staying stuck is hard.

Taking ownership, adapting, and moving forward can be hard too.

Choose your hard.

The best leaders aren't somehow spared from difficult circumstances. They've learned to pause, reframe, control what they can control—and act.

Sometimes leadership is a well-developed strategy.

And sometimes...

it's finding a stick to keep traffic moving.