Mohs' Scale of Hardness

Hardness	Mineral
1	Talc
2	Gypsum
3	Calcite
4	Fluorite
5	Apatite
6	Orthoclase
7	Quartz
8	Topaz
9	Corundum
10	Diamond

Why is it that the hardest things are the most valuable? When it comes to geology, the matter seems quite obvious: the harder a mineral is, the more resistant it is to erosion, scarring and overall decomposition. They stay together longer and keep their nice appearance because they're tough. Furthermore, harder substances can be used to refine & shape softer minerals. This very property was how the German geologist Frederich Mohs created his “rule of thumb” scale of hardness. Each mineral with a higher number would scratch and mineral with a number lower than it. Hence, limestone scratches talc; quartz, limestone; emerald, quartz; ruby, emerald and diamond, anything.

It's no wonder that gemstones all occupy the harder, upper, half of Mohs’ scale for hardness: they all are resistant to being scratched, and therefore stay shiny after being cut. The longer I live, the more I am beginning to appreciate that “hardness” and “value” are typically paired, across all areas of life. It is the challenges in life which we, as humans value more so than those “easy” things. This is why we applaud Olympians for their accomplishments; why we give out various Nobel Prizes; why there are “masters” and “masterpieces” in the fine arts. We recognise names like Einstein, Newton, Gretzky, Mozart, Leonardo, Galileo because we recognise that they have done things which we know to be hard.

Hardness doesn’t exist just in the world of great ones. Its value, I bet, can be seen in areas of your own life. Take my life for example: I don’t necessarily value walking or riding a bike, because these things are quite easy for me to do. However, things that require discipline and consistency are very difficult for me to do. Working out, getting my degree, relationships with other people and my relationship with Jesus Christ are all hard things for me to do. And it is, to some extent, precisely because these things are hard that I value them. On the other hand, it is precisely because these things are hard that I also hate them. So here I am, stuck in conflict between pursuing hard things because I value them and rejecting to pursue hard things because they require significant investment.

Another thing I've noticed about hard things is that—or the most part—our manner of engagement, that is your decision whether to pursue the hard thing or not, is self-reinforcing. The more often I go to the gym & work out, the easier it is for me to continue doing so, because I easily remember how enjoyable the experience is & how enjoyable its results are. When I stop going to the gym for a while for any reason, all I can think about is how much I don't want to go to the gym because of how hard the physical activity is & how much time it eats up during the day. The same goes for my relationship with Christ: if I habitually read my Bible, pray and spend alone time with the Lord, such activities become the joy of my day & I eagerly look forward to them. Conversely, when I stop doing these activities consistently & regularly, they become burdens to me, dutiful difficulties that I would rather forego for other, easier activities.

My university studies have been absorbing as much of my waking (and some of my sleeping) hours as I let it/as I can afford recently, and the demands of my program are only going to increase for the rest of this academic term. Needless to say, certain non-academic activities that I usually commit to have fallen to the wayside. I haven’t hit the gym to pump iron for over a month now and my time spent alone with God (or even with others) has suffered drastic temporal cutbacks within the previous 4 weeks. This leaves me in a state where I don’t really have much of a desire to pursue either of these activities: going to the gym takes effort & makes me feel tired; reading my Bible has become somewhat of a chore & praying has become somewhat of a perceived useless activity. It really is too bad, because I can recognise the value of all of these hard activities and I realise the potential impact of not doing these things will have on my overall life, but...

Attitude is a habitual beast: the longer you are doing something, the more favourable it appears. I bet that there has been some psychological study on this phenomenon, for analogues are easily seen in perceptual inertia & hysteresis effects as well as in social psychology's theory of interpersonal liking & love: the more that an individual is exposed to something, the more a.) its effects persist, b.) the individual prefers it. It would therefore, not be unreasonable to draw a similar conclusion that motivation & will may be subject to the same inertia/hysteresis effects.

Why am I saying all of this? Well, because it provides a means of escape from the vicious, self-reinforcing cycle of not wanting to go after the hard things. What is it, you ask? Simple: go after the hard things. The most difficult part of changing an attitude or an approach towards something is taking that first step. As soon as the first decision & the first actual engagement/“doing” of that hard thing is done, the easier the following engagements & decisions to continue will be.

To be honest, this post is mainly written for my own, personal kick-in-the-pants purposes, but I think that it would be good to let others know about this idea as well. I’m sure that there are things in your life, oh reader, that you know you should start doing (or stop doing). I can guarantee that there is some part of your life that needs change, but you either feel unable or unwanting (or both) to make that change. In my life, there are several of these, and reconnecting with Christ is the most important one in my life. The problem is that it's hard. It requires giving up energy; it demands doing something that you know will be difficult. It's hard to make that change. It's damn hard, but as we can see in Mohs’ scale of hardness, the harder something is, the more valuable it is. The harder something is, the longer it will last and the greater it will affect those easier, softer things.

Look at your life, as I am looking at mine, and recognise both the challenge and the value of pursuing the harder things. Pull a Nike and “Just do it,” because the hardest part is starting the change. It will get easier to continue in the change, the longer you actively pursue that change.

In Revelation 2:17, Jesus promises to give to whoever overcomes a white stone. Which white stone do you want him to give you: a block of talc, which will crumble into baby powder and disappear, or a diamond which can cut through anything as it shimmers and glows with an internal, eternal fire? The choice is yours & the choice is mine. Pursue the hard things, for in them you will find great value. Making that hard change will be worth it, so the only decision that remains is this: are you going to go after it or not?