Choose Your Hard

Post written by Tony Gutierrez, IEC Graduate and Master Electrician

Life is hard. That's the bottom line. No one makes it through life without experiencing some form of hardship. Whether it's personal struggles, challenges at work, or just the daily grind, everyone faces obstacles. But here's the thing – we all have the power of choice. You can choose to face your hard now, or later.

Take something as simple as building a new habit. Like reading every day or doing your homework regularly. It's hard to build that habit in the beginning. It takes time, focus, and discipline. If you choose to skip it and scroll through social media instead, that might feel easy at first – effortless, even. However, when it’s time to get your homework done, the ease will quickly fade, and you’ll realize the difficulty of cramming. Cramming is also the most inefficient way to learn or convert information to long-term memory. It may seem like the solution at the time when you need to get your homework done, but it will set you up for failure later.

But when you force yourself to stay disciplined – to put down your phone and open that textbook or start your homework – you're setting yourself up for success. You’re choosing your hard now, so the future version of you has an easier time.

Reading ahead, in my opinion, is one of the most beneficial things you can do. Not only does it make your lessons and homework easier, but it also lightens the load when it's time for exams. The exam is going to be hard no matter what – but you control the level of that hard by what you do (or don't do) leading up to it.

It’s the same with your end goal, getting your journeyman’s or master license. Attending four years at the IEC can be difficult – but so is taking and passing the journeyman and master electrician tests. The choice is yours: do you want to skip the last two years of schooling, or do you want to put in the work now to make attaining your goal of getting your journeyman or master license easier?

When I graduated from the IEC, I was able to pass my Colorado Journeyman test, Colorado Master Electrician test, and Kansas Standard Master Electrician test – all on the first try. It wasn’t because I got lucky. It was because I chose my hard in advance. I chose to attend all four years of school, built habits that worked for me, and prepared for the challenge.

Choose your hard wisely.