Do hard things.

I was trying to clean house a little bit ago, and I came across my alumni magazine.

I couldn't remember if I read the current issue or not. I thought I had, and I thought about tossing it in the recycling pile.

Once I opened it, I read a headline that caught my eye.

It said: "Do hard things. Do. Hard. Things."

The headline belongs to the text of the commencement speech that one of my alma mater's professors made at graduation this year.

It's pretty brilliant, and it's something that someone who graduated six years ago needed to hear.

Among the good nuggets of information in it:

"There's a Chinese proverb that says, the best time to plant a tree is 25 years ago. If you'd done that, you'd be sitting in its shade now. But since you didn't, the second best time to plant a tree is right now."

"It's been said a number of places, that success usually doesn't come from doing your day job, but from doing your homework. You graduates think you're done with homework. But I hope you're not."

"The more you do it, the more capable you become."

"You do hard things to prove to yourself how capable you are. Use that capability, find the thing that you want to get better at by doing more of it. Cultivate something you're passionate about, that you care about doing. It can open doors you haven't imagined yet."

"You do hard things to prove to other that you're capable, and credible."

"When you do hard things, you learn new things you never knew before. You prove to yourself that you're capable of doing something you thought was beyond you. And  you prove to other what you can do. They will believe in you and get behind you."

"The worthwhile things in life aren't always easy. And the easy things in life aren't always worthwhile. The world is begging for people who can do hard things. So go out there and prove what you can do."