'Use the Difficulty'

Sir Michael Caine, the two-time Oscar winning British actor, started his career with a valuable lesson, one he would eventually pass along to his children.

While working on a Broadway play, Caine was supposed to walk through a door onto the set to join a husband and wife who were arguing.

“I opened the door, and I said to the producer who was sitting out in the stalls, ‘Well look, I can’t get in. There’s a chair in my way.’

He said, ‘Well, use the difficulty.’

So I said, ‘What do you mean, use the difficulty?’

He said, ‘Well, if it’s a drama, pick it up and smash it. If it’s a comedy, fall over it.’

This was a line for me for life: Always use the difficulty.”

Caine never forgot the profound lesson. Each time he was faced with some sort of challenge in his career, he harkened back to those three powerful words to find a silver lining in it. 

“There’s never anything so bad where ‘using the difficulty’ can’t be applied,” he said. “If we use it only a quarter of one percent to our advantage, then we’re ahead. We didn’t let it get us down.”

We all start a new year with a resolution or a word to help us change our habits, modify our behavior, and create a better version of ourselves. 

Over the next 362 days, we will all face some element of difficulty in our professional and personal lives. How we handle the difficulty will allow us to continue our never-ending battle towards self-improvement.

If we as leaders, parents, teachers and friends use those three words when faced with a difficult time, we gain a better process toward understanding how we can turn a setback into a comeback. 

As soon as we encounter a challenge situation, remind yourself to “Use the Difficulty.” Say it over and over again to yourself, which will allow you to shift the focus from pain or anger toward learning, creating a far better pathway to solving the problem.

Then ask the following questions to yourself: 

What is this situation teaching me? What can be a useful lesson from this challenge? 

If a friend or colleague was faced with a similar situation, what advice would we offer them? This allows you to take a step back and find a different perspective of the difficulty.

What is the silver lining in the problem — search for the advantages. 

What one thing could I do to improve the situation? 

How we talk to ourselves when facing challenges helps us create a pathway towards resolution.

So as we make all different promises to ourselves in the coming weeks, promise to include “use the difficulty” in your self talk.”

It worked for Sir Michael — it will work for you. 

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