You Can Do Hard Things

You Can Do Hard Things (And Here's How to Remind Yourself of That)

I'm going to admit something upfront: this post started as a pep talk for me.

This year has been one of those years where a lot of things happen that you didn't plan for and can't control. And when that stacks up, it can start to feel like everything is hard, even the things that shouldn't be.

My daughter attends a resilience program during the school holidays called Lemonade Kids. The woman who runs it, Bech Steinacher, is genuinely incredible at what she does. My daughter came home with a little keychain that says "You Can Do Hard Things," and she put it straight on her school bag.

It's been sitting in my line of sight for a while now, and I keep thinking, we could all do with a version of that.

So, if you need a bit of a cheerleader today, here I am. And if you're in a season where things are feeling heavier than usual, especially around money and all the life stuff that wraps around it, I want to offer you five things that actually help.

1. Write a list

I know this sounds almost embarrassingly simple. But hear me out.

When you're in a period of overwhelm, one of the worst things you can do is try to hold everything in your head. Things get lost, half-remembered, or they wake you up at 3am when you suddenly remember you forgot to do that form.

Speaking of forms, I recently had to redo my binding death nomination for my super fund. The first time I completed it, I was distracted, wrote the wrong date, crossed it out, and sent it in. They sent it back. The form specifically says no corrections, which of course I'd missed because I was trying to do seventeen things at once. Had to do it again.

That kind of thing happens when your brain is full.

So write it down. Use your phone notes, a notebook, whatever works. I use the reminders app on my phone so I can set a date and time and not think about it again until it pops up. Some mornings I wake up to five reminders and I'm genuinely grateful every single one of them exists.

2. Schedule separate time for strategic thinking and tactical planning

This is a bigger one than most people realise.

Strategic thinking and tactical planning are not the same thing, and they require completely different conditions.

Tactical planning, your to-do list, organising your week, working out the order of operations, you can actually do a bit of that on the run. You can be on a train or have noise around you and still get it done.

Strategic thinking is different. You need quiet. You need to know you won't be interrupted. You need to be well-rested and not have your nervous system firing on ten things at once.

I wrote this episode on a weekend when I happened to know I had a window. My daughter was at a birthday party. My husband was down doing a boat renovation. I blocked it out in my calendar as strategy time and I used it.

If you've been meaning to think seriously about your money, your investing, your financial future, but you've never actually carved out time for it, that's probably a big part of why it hasn't happened. Put it in the calendar like an appointment you can't move.

And if you want support with the strategic side, that's exactly what my Financial Future Review is designed for. It's a 90-minute session where we get really clear on where you are, where you're going, and what needs to change. Sometimes you just need someone who can ask you the questions you wouldn't think to ask yourself.

3. Don't think about the big picture too often

I once met a woman at an expo after a talk I'd done. She was visibly stressed, and the first thing she said to me was that her superannuation was going up and down and she didn't know what to do.

I asked her how often she was looking at it.

Every day, she said.

There's your problem.

Investing is a long game. If you're checking your super or your investment portfolio daily, you will always find something to panic about. Markets move. Things fluctuate. That is normal and expected, and it has very little to do with whether your long-term strategy is working.

Do the thinking, build the strategy, put the plan in motion. Then let it run. Review it every 6 to 12 months, or if something significant changes in your life like a relationship breakdown, a job loss, or a windfall. Outside of that, trust what you set up and leave it alone.

If you keep making adjustments every time you read something alarming, you'll lose the benefit of the long-term view you're trying to build.

4. Do one thing at a time

Women are often celebrated for multitasking. I'm going to gently push back on that.

Multitasking splits your attention. Things take longer. More errors happen. And you get to the end of the day having done a lot of things halfway.

I've started telling my daughter: do one thing and do it well. Finish it. Then start the next.

There are exceptions. If something is uploading or processing, sure, use that time. But the goal is completion. Completing a task, actually getting to the end of it, builds a kind of confidence that's easy to underestimate. Your brain starts to recognise that you follow through. That you finish things. And that compounds.

If something on your list keeps not getting done, ask yourself honestly: do I actually want to do this? If the answer is no, and it doesn't really need to happen, take it off the list. Get it out of your head. Move on.

5. Keep going

This is the one that sounds the most obvious and is often the hardest to actually do.

Consistent action, small and regular, wins every time over one dramatic effort. Think about anyone who's achieved something meaningful. It wasn't one big moment. It was the accumulation of small ones. The micro investing that started with connecting a bank account. The content that started with one post a week. The habits that started with one thing, done imperfectly, consistently.

On the days when you don't feel it, do one thing. Just one. Open your banking app. Log into your investing platform. Post something on social media, even if it's a photo of your garden. Forward motion, even tiny forward motion, keeps you in the game.

And it doesn't have to be perfect. I recorded a recent video without my contact lenses in. The screen was fuzzy and I was squinting slightly at my notes. But it got done. That matters more than polished.

Hard things feel less hard when you have a system for approaching them. A list, a strategy, a bit of structure, and the decision to keep moving.

You can do hard things. You're probably already doing them.

If you want some support figuring out the financial strategy side of things, my Financial Future Review session is a good place to start. It's 90 minutes, targeted, and you'll leave with real clarity on what to do next.