*** Handling Difficulties

Attempt Easy Tasks As If They Were Difficult
And Difficult Tasks As If They Were Easy
(Baltasar Gracián)

Getting Started On A Difficult Task

Together, we are embarking upon a path designed to help you identify your purpose in life. For some people, this task can be quite difficult. For others, it is fairly easy. Why has this most important task proven to be easier for some than for others? This is because some people refuse to let the mere fact that a task is difficult stop them from attempting and ultimately completing that task.

Rather than calling such tasks difficult, I would prefer to call them complex.

An Example Of Something I Considered Difficult That Others Considered Easy

Personally, I feel I've tried to accomplish many things during my life and I've been successful at quite a few of them. Of all the things I've accomplished, permanently losing all the weight I needed to lose has, by far, proven to be the most difficult for me. I'm sure there are people who have seen me over the years and could not understand how I allowed myself to get as overweight as I did. Many have probably also wondered why it took me so long to do something permanent about it.

I've come to believe that the reason it took me so long was that I had always believed that permanently losing weight was difficult. It was only when I began to follow the advice of a very close childhood friend, that I was able to permanently do something about it. For more than 30 years, this friend told me that losing weight is simple, and that all it takes is eating less and exercising more. Once I stopped treating this task as if it was difficult, I realized that it really is as simple as my friend made it out to be. All I had to do was eat less and exercise more.

An Example Of Something I Considered Easy That Others Considered Difficult

There are many other things I've accomplished in my life that others see as having been quite difficult. Among these accomplishments was becoming both a CPA and an attorney. For four years, I went to law school while working full-time. Many acquaintances told me that going to school at night must be difficult, and that they could never do what I was doing.

While it wasn't the easiest thing I ever did, it was not nearly as difficult as they were making it out to be. The difference between us was that I believed going to law school at night was not too difficult of a thing for me to accomplish, while they believed it was much too difficult for them to accomplish. In effect, I attempted something they thought was difficult, by treating it as if it was easy. That's why I was able to accomplish these professional goals, and why those who see it as too difficult of a task to attempt, never will.

What Are You Capable Of Accomplishing?

You can accomplish whatever it is you want to accomplish, as long as you believe it is possible, and within the realm of what you are either willing to do, or what you believe you are capable of doing. As we work together over the days and months to come, you will be doing many exercises and thinking about many things, some of which you may find difficult and some of which you may find easy.

What you must remember is that you can accomplish anything, no matter how difficult, if you treat it as if it were easy. You must also remember that you can sabotage yourself and make it much harder to do things, even easy ones, if you treat them as if they were difficult. If you follow this advice, you will find you are capable of doing practically anything you can imagine.