It Might Be Hard. Do It Anyway.

The neuroscience and benefits of doing the hard work.

Avoidance feels good in the moment.
It lowers stress. It quiets anxiety. It creates the feeling that we’ve escaped the problem.

But after 25 years in education, I’ve seen this play out over and over again. Avoidance may bring short-term relief, but it almost always comes at the cost of growth, for students and for schools.

We see it daily. A student delays starting an assignment because it feels overwhelming. Another avoids participating out of fear of being wrong. Even as educators, we recognize the pull. The hesitation to introduce something new. The instinct to delay work that we know will stretch us.

There’s a reason for this, and it’s rooted in how the brain is wired.

“It’s supposed to be hard.”

There’s a scene in A League of Their Own that has stayed with me for years. When Dottie, played by Geena Davis, quietly quits the team just before the World Series, her coach Jimmy, played by Tom Hanks, confronts her.

Dottie says, “It just got too hard.”

Jimmy responds, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

That line captures something essential about learning and leadership. Hard is not a signal that something is wrong. Often, it’s a sign that something meaningful is happening.

Why the brain avoids hard things

From a neuroscience standpoint, this response makes sense. When something feels difficult, uncertain, or socially risky, the brain’s threat system activates. The amygdala, which scans for danger, does not distinguish well between physical threats and emotional ones like failure, embarrassment, or judgment.

When students feel anxious about being wrong, their brains are trying to protect them. Avoidance becomes a coping strategy. In the short term, it works. In the long term, it limits learning. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5879019/. (PMC)

What we want instead is engagement from the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for planning, reasoning, and self-control. That system strengthens through use. Not through ease, but through effort. Through appropriately challenging experiences paired with support.

This is how resilience is built, not by removing difficulty, but by helping students move through it.

Hard looks different for every student

Hard is not universal.

Some kids are born on second base. They show up to the game with stability, confidence, and strong support systems. Others show up to the game carrying stressors that have nothing to do with school. Sometimes they are doing their best just to get on the field, and they are doing it without the same equipment, encouragement, or conditions working in their favor.

Family dynamics, economics, learning differences, mental health, and lived experience all shape what “hard” feels like for a student. Our responsibility is to meet students where they are and coach them forward from that point. Doing hard things does not mean doing unsupported things.

What students actually need

Students don’t need motivational slogans. They need practices.

One simple but powerful practice we use in GRiT is helping students name the hard before they avoid it. When a student feels stuck, we teach them to pause and complete a short reflection:

• What part of this feels hard right now?
• Is this hard because it’s new, because I might fail, or because I’m worried about how I’ll look?
• What is one small action I can take instead of avoiding it?

This practice does two things. First, it slows the brain down, reducing emotional reactivity. Second, it shifts students from avoidance to agency. They stop seeing hard as a wall and start seeing it as a step.

Over time, these small moments matter. They build confidence not because things get easier, but because students learn they can handle difficulty.

The brain can change

Neuroscience tells us the brain is capable of change through neuroplasticity. Repeated experiences can strengthen and rewire neural pathways. When students practice persistence, reflection, emotional regulation, and follow-through, they are strengthening the systems responsible for focus, resilience, and self-leadership.

This is why practices like naming the hard, reframing the story they are telling themselves, and taking one small next step matter so much, because they turn a moment of stress into a moment of rewiring. https://www.edutopia.org/article/reframing-rewire-student-brains/. (Edutopia)

This is why understanding how the brain works matters. When students begin to recognize their own patterns under stress, they gain something powerful. They start to know themselves, and that self-awareness becomes the foundation for leading themselves.

Doing hard things as educators

There’s an important parallel here.

The same instincts students have to avoid hard things show up in adult systems too. Starting a new class, adopting a new approach, or committing time to work that addresses student resilience is hard. It requires effort. It stretches capacity. It asks us to believe the work is worth it.

And yet, this is the work we choose because we know what’s at stake.

This is where GRiT fits (www.rewirededu.com), not as a quick fix, but as a partner in the work. GRiT is rooted in neuroscience and designed to help students understand how they learn, how they respond to stress, and how to grow through challenge. It creates structured opportunities for students to practice doing hard things with support, reflection, and purpose.

It doesn’t remove difficulty. It teaches students how to navigate it.

The responsibility we carry

Marcus Aurelius wrote about the strength that comes from focusing on what we can control, starting with our own mind and responses. That idea applies just as much in today’s classrooms.

We cannot control everything our students face, but we can help them build the capacity to face it. Choosing to do hard things, intentionally and together, is part of our responsibility as educators and leaders.

It might be hard.
Do it anyway.
Because the hard is often what makes it great.

More importantly, it’s what helps students become who they are meant to be.