There’s a women’s basketball coach at Duke University whose mantra has become an attitude and a testament to strive for in life, “Handle Hard Better.”
I saw the Sports Center special this past Sunday. I was immediately drawn and impressed by how she and others handle the pressures of everyday life, not just a sport or sports team but to be a successful human being. It’s not a hard attitude to achieve. It takes willpower, perseverance, and discipline to achieve goals that may appear unattainable.
Kara Lawson’s goal as she prepares her freshman class on the first day of practice, is not to be a great basketball player, but a contributing force for humanity at large. Her intent was to mold her student athletes toward something greater than the sport of basketball.
We have all handled adversity in our collective lives. Many have dreams they want to advance toward but come up short. In the Author Miller Play, Death of a Salesman, Willie Loman’s dreams of success is marginal at best and he reminisces about what could have been before he planted seeds in a garden at night just prior to him committing suicide. His jealousy of his brother, Ben success following his success as a miner compounds his feelings of worthlessness as a human being and father. Though Willie could have gone that tract, he declined and ended up there and gave up on his dreams.
Others, like Job from the Old Testament lost everything, yet persevered to serve a higher power. Once Job had done that God blessed him in his second life ten-fold of everything he had loss. Though the odds were against him, he found a path to personal and spiritual happiness. Most important Job didn’t give up.
I still struggle myself with my dream of becoming a successful writer, making good money and retiring happily in my older years. I too have to handle hard better I know that and also realize that financial success doesn’t equate into person satisfaction of a job done well. When I finished any project, the satisfaction of doing that job with the best possible outcome, is what I strive for more than the royalty check that may come as a result. The monetary benefit will come in time.
The one thing I will not do, ever do, is lose hope and give up on my dream. I made that mistake in my first life. I want to be bestowed those same riches that Job received by tenacious and stubborn perseverance. I intend to handle hard better.
Jerry Schellhammer 