{"id":83574,"date":"2018-11-07T22:10:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T22:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/?p=83574"},"modified":"2018-11-07T22:11:20","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T22:11:20","slug":"difficulty-is-not-optional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/2018\/11\/07\/difficulty-is-not-optional\/","title":{"rendered":"Difficulty is Not Optional"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Near the end of a seminar someone will often say some version of the following: \u201cI like the sound of what you are proposing, but I think it will be difficult\u201d, in a tone that makes it clear that they feel it shouldn’t be.<\/p>\n

Here is my take: given the benefits GTD\u00ae offers to those who practice consistently, I don\u2019t think querying the difficulty of it is the right question.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it really possible<\/em> to get the benefits you suggest?\u201d, strikes me as a much more useful question at that point in the proceedings.<\/p>\n

If it is not possible to get the benefits we promise, then we should all down tools now. Best not waste any more time. However, if it is possible to have them, then we\u2019d best just get stuck straight in, as the rewards are substantial enough to make ‘difficult’ look like a detail in a much bigger picture.<\/p>\n

A large part of the challenge of learning anything is simply believing that the benefits on the other side of learning it are worth the effort to get there. If we don\u2019t believe that we can get there, then we would, of course, be mad to try. If the benefits are only available to others \u2013 smarter, more motivated, more \u2018disciplined\u2019 than we know ourselves to be \u2013 then we are better off conserving our energy.<\/p>\n

There is another way of thinking about difficulty. After 14 years of practising and 10 years of teaching the approach, I\u2019m not convinced that GTD will make anyone\u2019s life less difficult. Difficult seems to be a feature of being human, and I\u2019ve not yet met anyone \u2013 no matter how wealthy, famous, humble, centred or beautiful \u2013 for whom there are no rainy days. Rainy years even.<\/p>\n

Life seems to throw a lot of curveballs, and the difficulty dealing with them seems to be astonishingly well matched to our ability to handle them. We don\u2019t get the curveballs that stretched us in our twenties anymore \u2013 that would be too easy. No, in our forties and fifties, we get forty-something and fifty-something curveballs, always pitched seemingly just outside of our zone of competence. It seems that that is how we grow.<\/p>\n

So when someone says, \u201cI like this, but it feels like it will be difficult\u201d, I get it. My response these days is this: \u201cYes, but it is difficult already. We aren\u2019t promising to make it less difficult. What we are promising is better results for the difficulty you experience in being human anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esoteric? Perhaps. Heretical? Almost certainly, but that is my experience.<\/p>\n

There is no domain of human performance where world-class performers are complaining about difficulty. They know that it’s part of the package. On the contrary, when they see difficulty, they get stuck straight in \u2013 it is an opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competition.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, GTD definitely makes my life easier in some \u2018cost\/benefit ratio\u2019 sort of way, where for an equivalent amount of aggro I definitely get better results than I was getting without using the approach.<\/p>\n

The aggro seems not to be negotiable, but the results seem to be somewhat under my control.<\/p>\n

And the benefits of using it as an approach to managing life in a maelstrom are such that grumbling about difficulty would feel just a tad ungrateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Near the end of a seminar someone will often say some version of the following: \u201cI like the sound of what you are proposing, but I think it will be difficult\u201d, in a tone that makes it clear that they feel it shouldn’t be. Here is my take: given the benefits GTD\u00ae offers to those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":83575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_eb_attr":"","gtp_columnspro_styling":"{}","gtp_paragraph_styling":"{}","gtp_heading_styling":"{}","gtp_spacer_styling":"{}","gtp_video_styling":"{}","gtp_group_styling":"{}","gtp_cover_styling":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[309,310,21,311,323],"tags":[951,3348,3349,51,53,3350,3351,1628,307,301],"yst_prominent_words":[1028,3355,1535,3356,3357,3353,3354,2595,2492,1076,2598,970,2606,3360,969,3359,871,2594,3358,3352],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83574"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=83574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}