Difficult is Not Impossible

Morning, team. Here we are. It is Wednesday Workshop, and today’s quote is, “Difficult doesn’t mean impossible. It simply means that you’re going to have to work hard.” I think Denzel Washington said that. Difficult doesn’t mean impossible. How many difficult things have you tried to do and accomplish in your life? Maybe you even failed at a couple of times, and then you accomplished the next thing.

I remember learning to swim, ride a bike, riding a horse, saddling a horse and so many things I learned as a small child, growing up, even things that have carried me into adulthood in my life that were difficult things. I was a small kid. Some people look at me today, and it looks like I like to eat, so maybe I’m not as small as I used to be. But I was a tiny little guy.

I look at my boys, who are both pretty small on the spectrum of kids their age. I look at my nephew; he’s playing football in eighth grade, and he’s the smallest guy on his team. But, oh my goodness, that boy can hit, and he’s tackling bigger kids twice his size, some of them. He grabs them around their legs, their shoelaces, and takes them down to the ground. Difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible; it just means you might have to work hard.

Me, I have to work hard at a lot of different things. There are a lot of things, and some of them are my own fault. I’ve told stories about how I didn’t know how to read when I was a kid. That has followed me from spelling to everything else in my life. I read a lot now, but I got news for you; I read slowly, and I’m not a great speller. So, everything I write, everything I say, everything I do has to be double and triple checked. If it wasn’t for Google, if it wasn’t for spell check and all those things, I would look like an idiot because of the mistakes I made.

But it doesn’t mean that because my life has been difficult, it has been worthless or not worth it. It just means I had to work a little bit harder because of either mistakes I made or because life has been tough in lots of different ways.

And for you today, it’s the same. I am certain that not every person that hears this message today is going to say that life hasn’t been difficult. I’m sure that most of us, from our own perspective and outlook on the way we see through the lens of our own eye. We think that our life is hard. Sometimes we compare our lives to somebody else because they drive a nicer car, they have nicer clothes, they have nicer shoes, or they have a bigger house. They live in a nicer apartment. They have a girlfriend and we don’t. Or they have a boyfriend and we don’t, or they have kids and we don’t.

We look at it from our own lens of how we see things and think that their life is better than ours. At the same time, they’re looking through their lens, and they see your life, and they go, “Wow, I wish I had that.” That’s really true. So often, we compare ourselves to others because we think that our life is more difficult. The fact of the matter is that we all have our own level of difficulty based on what God has instilled in us. And the ability to handle it for our time, for our lives, for what we are. It’s not the easiest for most of us; life is not easy, and I get that.

But on this Wednesday Workshop, just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It just means you might have to work a little bit harder. You might have to get some more support from somebody else. You might have to spend and burn a little bit more of that midnight oil to get to that next place. But if you try, and you stick with it, and you don’t quit, and you keep moving forward, you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish.

I look back 23 years ago. Starting a company with almost no money in the bank, with very little knowledge about what to do and how to do it. Look, 23 years later, a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of hard work. The reason we are where we’re at is because I didn’t quit. Because I knew it was difficult, and I refused to give up. We’re here today in a different place because I was willing to put in the work.

Are you willing to put in the work to get what you want next out of your life? For your purposes? One of the biggest things you can learn from this and from life, in general, is just don’t compare yourself to the Joneses. Don’t look at the Joneses or the Smiths and say, “Oh, if only,” because they have their own set of difficulties that have been handed to them, just like you have.

So don’t compare yourselves with those around you. Look in the mirror, compare yourself to who you are today, who you were yesterday, and who you wish to be tomorrow. Then keep striving, working, and dedicating yourself to the end goal of where you want to go. And don’t quit. The end result is you’ll get to where you’re trying to get to. It’s going to be a rocky journey, but it’s going to be a fruitful journey, and you’ll remember those things as you look back, and then it will be awesome.

So again, just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It just means you’re going to have to work hard to get it. God bless you. Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week. Bye. See you.