And that is what I want you to focus on for just a moment. It might be getting married. It might be that you had a move. It might be getting through a very challenging health condition. You might have made some important changes in your life that were difficult for you, but you can stand in victory and say, I did this. Perhaps you accomplished some type of dream or goal. Maybe you had great adversity in your life and you are still standing and you overcame that. These are the kinds of answers that I get from people when I’ve asked them to share in person retreats that I’ve run.

It’s a very powerful exercise to actually take a moment to think about something that you’ve accomplished in your life that is of great importance. And most of the time, what will go along with that is that you achieved it under great difficulty, that you did experience difficulty in your life. So much of what were shown in popular culture with drugs and alcohol and shopping and gambling and other ways that people use other things that people do in order to distract themselves from their pain. It’s almost like we’re being told that something’s wrong with you.

If your life isn’t difficult, that you should should have smooth sailing and that problems and difficulties mean that you’re doing something wrong or even worse that you are wrong. And my friends, there’s nothing further from the truth. You see problems and difficulties are a part of life. The problem with the difficulties, if I may, and the problems is when we add on additional suffering to the already existing difficulty. I’m going to give you an example from my own life. And this is more of a trivial example. And I’m doing that on purpose to remove some of the emotional connection to it so that we can see clearly and sober mindedly.

I have been procrastinating on a very large and a very important project. Actually, let me say that I thought it was a large project. In my mind, it was growing larger and larger and more and more difficult, more and more complex. And when I thought about it, the first thing was that I don’t have enough time. I need a complete day to dedicate to this project. And of course, I would always find things to do when that day would come along that I thought I could have an unlimited amount of time ahead of me, I would find other things to do like organize my sock drawer and clean out the refrigerator and other things that I know you can relate to when we’re procrastinating.

The reason for me, there were a few reasons why. Number one, I thought it was too difficult. And as I say, there’s a tendency for many of us to shy away from things that are difficult to think that you know, this should be easy, I should know how to do this. Well, that is part of the adding on to the already difficult circumstances. So I made a couple of notes here, I thought that this project would be too difficult, it would take too much time. I didn’t really know how to do it.

So it was also something that I felt unqualified for. And then I also thought I don’t really want to do it. I wish somebody else was doing it. So all of these things added to the difficult situation. But basically, at the end of the day, I just wanted to escape the concept, the notion that it was going to be difficult, I wanted it to be easy. So the thing is, there’s nothing wrong with something being difficult, we can look at each of these situations, and I’ll give you right off the bat, why don’t we dive into some solutions, then I’ll talk a little bit more in a general sense in terms of your outlook and your thoughts about difficulty, and how we can make something that’s difficult, even more difficult, just because of our thoughts.

But let’s cut right to the chase. If you think that something is too difficult, get help. That’s another thing in our society. We are told that we are supposed to be independent, self starters, self-reliant, I can do it myself. That is celebrated in our society. And I’ve taken a completely different approach to that now in my life. Most of the time, I’m not perfect. And I would say maybe 80% of the time, I follow my own advice and the other 20%. I’m still, I need to listen to these videos again and again.

And that’s okay, you can cut yourself some slack as well. Most of the time, I realize the value of getting help with something, especially if it’s difficult. So if I don’t know how to do something, I need somebody to teach me. And you’re probably like me, where you want to learn on your own, you want to figure it out, just give me some time, all work, do a workaround. I actually think that is a value, and we’ll talk about values in a moment as well. I think that that is something to be valued if you are a self starter, if you are somebody that is resourceful, can work independently.

I think that’s fantastic. It probably has actually helped you in many ways in your life. However, if you need to rebuild your engine, and you’re not a mechanic, you’re going to get help with that, right? Maybe you get help in your home. Maybe you’re a mom of young children, and you have a helper that comes in and folds the laundry and does the dishes, or maybe takes your kids out to play in the park while you can get a few things done. There’s nothing wrong with getting help like that to help ease up some of your time.

There’s nothing wrong with getting help in learning how to do something. And certainly, there’s nothing wrong in giving the project someone else to do as well if they are qualified or want to do that. It all ties back to getting help when you’re in difficult times, you might be going through difficulty because you’ve had a loss. I’ve talked a lot on this channel about sorrow, loss, grieving, integrating those things into your life so that you can continue to live life, not forgetting about what you had, but allowing those changes to be integrated in your life.

So you might be feeling difficulty in doing that. Again, get help, get help from someone that’s walked that road, that can be your support, that can be your shoulder to cry on, that can point you in the right direction. So in the difficult times, you don’t need to go through it alone. Those are a couple of things right off the bat. But let’s talk more about the mindset, about your thoughts about things being difficult. Let’s remove that concept that is sometimes put forth in our society, that if you’re having a problem and you’re going through a difficult time, that that is bad.

And even worse, you are bad for getting yourself into that situation, not knowing how to get out of it. You should have, you could have, you didn’t, you might have all of that is water under the bridge and it’s gone. So adding that type of thinking on top of the already difficult circumstances adds what I call suffering and unnecessary suffering. Strangely, some people are drawn to that. We talked about in the previous video about there’s nothing wrong with easy. When things are going smooth, sometimes people like to rock the boat. It’s like they can’t stand that things in their life are going well, and they need that drama, they’re addicted to drama.

And in the same situation, some people that are having a difficult time, it’s like they’re celebrating that they want it to be difficult. They feel that maybe their life doesn’t have meaning unless they really had to put in the blood, sweat and tears. But sometimes friends, you don’t have to do that and it’s okay. So I’ll give you an example here on my YouTube channel. I absolutely love doing what I do. I love researching the information. I love organizing my notes. I love to think about the different topics. I love to help you in what it is you might be going through.

So for me, it’s a joy. For someone else, that might be the most difficult thing they could ever imagine is to get in front of a camera, to let people know about their personal life, to have to come up with solutions and strategies and resources and remedies. They would rather do anything other than that. But for me, it’s something that comes rather easily. Now, there have been difficulties in terms of I’ve had technical difficulties, I’ve had shadow banning, I’ve had the haters, the trolls, I’ve had my channel videos taken down, I’ve had strikes on the channel where I couldn’t upload.

I’ve had financial constraints with PayPal shutting down the ability for people to use that to send me support. So I have had difficulties. But when it’s smooth sailing, I’m not going to negate that and I’m not going to try to create the rocky path. Now, what troubles me is when people use this concept of it’s going to be too difficult to not do anything at all. Again, I’m just going to go to the punch line and let you know that that project I was telling you about, I actually completed it. And I completed it in record time.

I am one of those people that over my life, I tend to put things off a little bit. If that’s you, I want you to be on this program that I’m doing, which is all about procrastination. And I’ll tell you all about that as well. But what I have found is that when I give myself a limited timeframe to achieve something to complete something, I do it a lot faster. But here’s the hidden gift. You don’t need to procrastinate and actually wait until the deadline. You can give yourself an artificial deadline, you can say I’m going to finish this before I go to bed.

I’m going to finish this before I have dinner. I’m only going to, I’m going to have 20 minutes to get this done. Let’s go. And that has helped me tremendously. So on this project, I told myself that I am not going to bed. I’m not going to let the weekend go by until I finished that project. And sure enough, it was 11 o’clock at night on a Sunday night. And I opened up the project and I thought, I can only do it a step at a time. And that’s only take in one piece of information at a time.

Well, you can synthesize the information, but really, when you think about it, there’s only one task that can be done. I like to think of these tasks as little like soldiers or marching in front. Okay, who’s next? All right, now you, what have you got? All right, now let’s take care of you. I can’t take care of it all at the same time. I can only do one at a time. So I opened up the project and one at a time, those little soldiers marched across my desk and I handled each action item at a time.

And I’m telling you, I could not believe how much simpler it was. I got through it more quickly. It was not very complicated. There were a couple missing pieces that I needed to get help with and I was able to do that. And I had the best night’s sleep in a long time because I wasn’t having the weight of that difficulty on me. So there’s nothing wrong with difficult. I needed to remind myself of that. Just because something’s difficult doesn’t mean I can’t do it. Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t do it.

Because let’s think about the good things that come from you going through difficulty. You learn skills right off the bat. You learn how to severe. You develop those skills if you didn’t have them previously. You definitely learn something when you go through that. You might learn that you never want to do it again. All right. I remember taking a class on something and it was like, oh my gosh, this is so hard. I am not even enjoying myself doing this, but I had purchased like four sessions of this course and I did all the four sessions and I thought, you know what, it’s not really for me after all.

And that’s okay. At least I tried it and I realized that it wasn’t really a good match for what I wanted to do. So I learned something about myself in the process that I would rather observe this activity than participate in it. So the saddest thing for me is when I see people not doing the difficult thing because they think they can’t succeed. It doesn’t matter if you succeed it in certain ways. It doesn’t even matter if you do it right. Maybe you can do it again or maybe somebody can help you and maybe at least you learned a way not to do it.

So it is so sad when I know people that want to start a business that want to grow a garden or learn how to cook or study a foreign language or play a musical instrument or draw or paint or write or be a nanny or travel, whatever it is, yet they think it’s going to be too difficult. Taking the smallest step, reading about the activity, going on YouTube, learning how other people did it. You don’t even have to spend a penny to get going and you can develop your confidence along the way.

So I’m curious to know from you those difficult things that you’ve been through in your life that made you who you are today so that you can look at this concept of something being difficult and not pile on the suffering of, let’s say, moaning and groaning about it. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I have to do this project. That only makes it worse, as I say. Worse is worse than worse. So instead, I can pull my shoulders back. I can look at it soberly. I can let those little soldiers march across the desk and say, all right, what have I got to handle and let’s handle it.

What troubles me the most is when people violate their own principles and values because they think something is difficult. Think over the last few years when circumstances were such that you might not have been able to keep your job because you would not comply with tyranny. You might not have seen a medical doctor because you wouldn’t subject yourself to the nasal schwa basalt, as I call it, or the self-suffocation devices. You may have missed out on trips, on seeing friends and family, on more important things like your livelihood, but you stood in this difficulty and you did it.

You acted in alignment with your goals and your values, and you didn’t just throw it away because you didn’t want to go through this difficult situation. I’ve had more than one person say to me, well, Peggy, that’s easy for you to say, when I would give my tips and tools and resources and remedies on how to push back against tyranny, how to live in liberty, even with all of the oppression going around us. And I am still trying to figure out why certain people think that it’s easy for me to say, maybe because I’m teaching the information and I’ve compiled all of these ideas, maybe because I’ve said that hashtag never have, never will.

I’ve never complied with anything along those lines, and I never will, because it goes against what God wants for my life. So if I were to have just, oh, it’s only 10 minutes. Oh, it’s only just to run in. Again, I’m not putting any judgment on you. You have to decide what your values are and how God wants you to live. He wants me to honor him with my breath and to not live in fear over scary things that might or might not be out there. He called me to be an example of living my life in liberty, in freedom, and going through the difficulties.

I’ve gotten kicked off planes. I got kicked out of jobs. I got kicked out of the swimming pool, out of restaurants. No, it’s not easy. It’s difficult. And there’s nothing wrong with difficult. That is how we learn and grow. All right, friends, I just want you to remember that assuming that life is supposed to be smooth sailing is going to add suffering onto these problems and difficult circumstances that are going to arise because that is a part of life. All right, friends, remember, get support, do it anyway, break it down, let those little soldiers march across, handle one thing at a time, encourage your own self, develop the gumption, the resourcefulness, the knowledge, the techniques, the experience, and learn from it.

So grateful to have you on board, everybody. I look forward to seeing you in our next get together. And thanks again for what you’re contributing to our community here. See you soon. [tr:trw].

See more of The Healthy American Peggy Hall on their Public Channel and the MPN The Healthy American Peggy Hall channel.