Do Hard Things
Greetings one and all! I just finished reading a very exciting book called Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. The book is written by 19 year old twin brothers Alex Harris and Brett Harris. It is written by teens for teens.
The book is broken down in three parts: Part One is Rethinking The Teen Years. Part Two is Five Kinds of Hard. And Part Three is Join The Rebelution. Let's take each of these one at a time and chapter by chapter.
The first section of the book is Rethinking The Teen Years. It has four chapters. The first chapter is Most People Don't: A different kind of teen book. This chapter serves as an introduction to the book with a brief overview of what you find. Chapter two is The Birth Of A Big Idea: Rumblings of a rebelution. This chapter tells how they got started with this refreshing ministry of the rebelution. Actually, the term "rebelution" is the joining of the two words "rebellion" and "revolution". Thus you get "rebelution", or rebelling against low expectations. They rightly say that the teen years were intended to be a training ground for what we want to be in life. It will certainly force us to grow up fast. Search for your purpose in life early and start fulfilling it. The third chapter is The Myth of Adolescence: Exposing the low expectations that are robbing our generation. This chapter greatly expounds on the idea of the second chapter, that the teen years are to be a training ground for life. They tell the stories of George Washington, David Farragut, Clara Barton. All three were just kids and very shy when they were thrust into responsibility and grew up into there respective roles in life. In chapter four ( A Better Way: Reclaiming the teen years as the launching pad of life) tells what all three of them became later in life due to there young life training they received as children. This expounds more fully on the teen years as the training grounds of life. It introduces the term "kidults"meaning those who are all grown up, but have never accepted responsibility for themselves or their actions. It also talks about Five Kinds of Hard (things that are outside our comfort zones, things that go beyond what is expected or required, things that are too big to accomplish alone, things that don't earn an immediate payoff, and things that challenge the cultural norm).
All five of those hard things (see above in the perentheses) are the subjects of the second section (Five Kinds of Hard) and each one is talked about in great detail in the five chapters. Chapter five is That First Scary Step: How to do hard things that take you outside your comfort zone. It talks about finding out what you want to do and taking the first (and scary) step to work at it. When that first step is taken most of the others are a lot easier. It can be a major step of faith just to get started. The sixth chapter is Raising The Bar: How to do hard things that go beyond what's expected or required. Better known as going the extra mile Jesus talks about in Matthew's gospel. This talks about setting the expectations bar high and achieving excellance in what ever you do. Chapter seven is The Power of Collaboration: How to do hard things that are too big for you to do alone. This is about dreaming big things and working with family members and friends to accomplish those big dreams. There are a ton of awesome examples of teens who dreamed big, and got the help and encouragement of family and friends to accomplish those big things. Chapter eight is Small Hard Things: How to do hard things that don't pay off immediately. These things include things that many people don't think of as that important but really do build character and integrity in ourselves. And those are things we will all need later on in life. Chapter nine is Taking A Stand: How to do hard things that go against the crowd. This chapter talks about truly living as Jesus would live. In many other countries around the world those who live for Jesus are being persecuted all around the world. Culture accepts immorality across the board, but to truly live for Christ we have to turn away from all of that and make an impact for Him in that culture.
And Part Three is Join the Rebelution. It has three chapters here. Chapter ten is Generation Rising: Creating a counterculture from scratch (and a dash of salt). This is where the rubber meets the road. It is about finding your purpose in life and doing something about it right now.
Chapter eleven is A Thousand Young Heroes: Stories of new beginnings, impossible challenges, and the teens who are living them. This talks about finding the answers to how to get started on how to solve our purpose in life. As other chapters have discussed, get together with family and friends on a project together and solve this. In this chapter you'll read about several teens who have. In chapter twelve we read World, Meet You Rebelutionaries: Transforming your mission from a decision into a destiny. This chapter is truly about letting the rubber hit the road and get started on rebelling against low expectations. Let's encourage each other to reach higher than we ever have before. To live outside our comfort zones. To truly walk by faith and not by sight (as Paul says in 2 Corinthians). To learn more about this book, the others, and the teens they talk about please see their website at therebelution.com.
Thank you Alex and Brett for writing this fantastic and refreshing book! Peace and God bless!
The book is broken down in three parts: Part One is Rethinking The Teen Years. Part Two is Five Kinds of Hard. And Part Three is Join The Rebelution. Let's take each of these one at a time and chapter by chapter.
The first section of the book is Rethinking The Teen Years. It has four chapters. The first chapter is Most People Don't: A different kind of teen book. This chapter serves as an introduction to the book with a brief overview of what you find. Chapter two is The Birth Of A Big Idea: Rumblings of a rebelution. This chapter tells how they got started with this refreshing ministry of the rebelution. Actually, the term "rebelution" is the joining of the two words "rebellion" and "revolution". Thus you get "rebelution", or rebelling against low expectations. They rightly say that the teen years were intended to be a training ground for what we want to be in life. It will certainly force us to grow up fast. Search for your purpose in life early and start fulfilling it. The third chapter is The Myth of Adolescence: Exposing the low expectations that are robbing our generation. This chapter greatly expounds on the idea of the second chapter, that the teen years are to be a training ground for life. They tell the stories of George Washington, David Farragut, Clara Barton. All three were just kids and very shy when they were thrust into responsibility and grew up into there respective roles in life. In chapter four ( A Better Way: Reclaiming the teen years as the launching pad of life) tells what all three of them became later in life due to there young life training they received as children. This expounds more fully on the teen years as the training grounds of life. It introduces the term "kidults"meaning those who are all grown up, but have never accepted responsibility for themselves or their actions. It also talks about Five Kinds of Hard (things that are outside our comfort zones, things that go beyond what is expected or required, things that are too big to accomplish alone, things that don't earn an immediate payoff, and things that challenge the cultural norm).
All five of those hard things (see above in the perentheses) are the subjects of the second section (Five Kinds of Hard) and each one is talked about in great detail in the five chapters. Chapter five is That First Scary Step: How to do hard things that take you outside your comfort zone. It talks about finding out what you want to do and taking the first (and scary) step to work at it. When that first step is taken most of the others are a lot easier. It can be a major step of faith just to get started. The sixth chapter is Raising The Bar: How to do hard things that go beyond what's expected or required. Better known as going the extra mile Jesus talks about in Matthew's gospel. This talks about setting the expectations bar high and achieving excellance in what ever you do. Chapter seven is The Power of Collaboration: How to do hard things that are too big for you to do alone. This is about dreaming big things and working with family members and friends to accomplish those big dreams. There are a ton of awesome examples of teens who dreamed big, and got the help and encouragement of family and friends to accomplish those big things. Chapter eight is Small Hard Things: How to do hard things that don't pay off immediately. These things include things that many people don't think of as that important but really do build character and integrity in ourselves. And those are things we will all need later on in life. Chapter nine is Taking A Stand: How to do hard things that go against the crowd. This chapter talks about truly living as Jesus would live. In many other countries around the world those who live for Jesus are being persecuted all around the world. Culture accepts immorality across the board, but to truly live for Christ we have to turn away from all of that and make an impact for Him in that culture.
And Part Three is Join the Rebelution. It has three chapters here. Chapter ten is Generation Rising: Creating a counterculture from scratch (and a dash of salt). This is where the rubber meets the road. It is about finding your purpose in life and doing something about it right now.
Chapter eleven is A Thousand Young Heroes: Stories of new beginnings, impossible challenges, and the teens who are living them. This talks about finding the answers to how to get started on how to solve our purpose in life. As other chapters have discussed, get together with family and friends on a project together and solve this. In this chapter you'll read about several teens who have. In chapter twelve we read World, Meet You Rebelutionaries: Transforming your mission from a decision into a destiny. This chapter is truly about letting the rubber hit the road and get started on rebelling against low expectations. Let's encourage each other to reach higher than we ever have before. To live outside our comfort zones. To truly walk by faith and not by sight (as Paul says in 2 Corinthians). To learn more about this book, the others, and the teens they talk about please see their website at therebelution.com.
Thank you Alex and Brett for writing this fantastic and refreshing book! Peace and God bless!
posted by Zack | 9:53 AM
1 Comments:
Hey, Zebo! Enjoyed reading your blog! Know i don't say it often enough, but you are pretty special! Keep up the good work!
Post a Comment
<< Home