There are the hard parts of movies – the moments you flinch, you wince – you might pause the film (generally ¾ of the way through) and think, god this is painful. Maybe you walk away from it. Maybe you keep watching but you have a little check of your phone.

Whatever you do, your glass half full knows the truth: Once you get through the rough, it will probably end well. 

But it still hurts. It’s still uncomfortable, it is still the hard part of the film.

When I was a kid, I remember skipping past these uncomfortable parts, the bits where the goody lets his friends down, or the couple break up. I would skip them and get right back on schedule with the good bits.

And I still do now – today on the plane, I had to pause Jerry Maguire, at the tough part, look out the window, and wait until the wince had left my system.

In the hard, uncomfortable moments, it will get better, but it’s tricky to remember. It’s fine to pause, to take a breath to get through the pain.

But we are not children any more. Something deep down knows we can’t skip it. To skip it would be being dishonest. Would do us a disservice. We have to go through those uncomfortable moments to get to the good part. 

In fact, the good part is not the good part until we’ve been through those moments.

Don’t skip them. 

The good bits will cease to exist if you do.