The Shining Light... of Difficulty
A sequel to my "Difficulty Scale" post that... nobody asked for! 🔥😂
Because why wait until somebody asks you to do something — it’s much better to put in the effort on your own initiative and save everyone the trouble of having to ask!
✅ 💯
Kind reader, if you haven’t read the prequel to this post, “The Andrew Pak Difficulty Scale”, worry not — you don’t actually need to read it! Because even though this post is a continuation on the same theme, it’s perfectly self-contained for your uninterrupted enjoyment! 🍿🥳
Because I take the RX, i.e. the Reader Experience, of my Substack very seriously. That’s why I will get straight to the point.
The goal of this post is to encourage you to never shy away from doing things that are hard. BUT — it’s not meant to be a post filled with useless platitudes.
I won’t sugar-coat it — doing hard things is actually inherently difficult and that experience of difficulty can be very frustrating and uncomfortable.
Fortunately, learning to feel comfortable doing uncomfortable things is an actual skill in and of itself. But unlike most skills, that are useful in one or more specialized contexts, this one is the master skill — the one skill that unlocks all skills.
And the really good news is that this skill can be learned completely passively — by deliberately learning and practicing many other difficult skills, over and over again. It’s as simple as that.
So to encourage you, kind reader, and myself as well, to regularly practice difficult skills, I wrote us a fun song — a rallying battlecry! 🔥
Now, remember, this is an artificial intelligence and machine learning related Substack. Thus, I wrote the song with the help of OpenAI’s ChatGPT large language model (LLM), because the whole point of AI is to allow us humans to be more productive and efficient with our time. I certainly saved myself a lot of time thanks to ChatGPT. 👊
However, I didn’t just copy-paste what ChatGPT generated — I both asked it to make several adjustments and also made my own, human-generated, modifications. Every line of the song speaks to a lived experience of a normal, living, breathing, and pooping human just like you and me, kind reader.
Lastly, the song is written in the first person by design — it’s a beneficial psychological trick meant to prime our perspective-biased brains for success!
And here’s the song!
The Shining Light of Difficulty
(Verse 1)
All these trials, they're hard to face, I'll agree,
But I'll take them all, 'cause they’ll set me free,
The struggle's real, it's a heavy load,
But in the end, it's a brighter road.
(Chorus 1)
I'll face the challenge, give it all I've got,
And in the struggle, I'll find what I sought,
The path is rough, but I'll walk it day and night,
In the end, I'll reach the shining light.
(Verse 2)
With every step, there's a battle to fight,
Through the darkest hours, I'll see the light,
I'll lose my way, but I'll find it back,
The strength I'll gain, there's nothing it'll lack.
(Bridge)
When I stumble and fall to the ground,
I'll rise again with a powerful sound,
In the face of fear, I will not shiver,
For I swore to myself that I will deliver.
(Chorus 2)
I'll face the challenge, give it all I've got,
And in the struggle, I won't lose the plot,
The journey's tough, but I'll be proven right,
In the end, I'll reach the shining light.
(Outro)
So I embrace the struggle, come what may,
In the end, it'll all be worth the fray,
With every hurdle, I'll find my way,
Doing difficult things, I'll seize the day.
And voilà, kind reader — I really hope that you both enjoyed the song and maybe also got inspired by it to go do something difficult that you didn’t feel like doing before!
Yours truly,
Andrew Pak
PS: This post is dedicated to my amazing niece and nephew, who have already surpassed their humble uncle Paani in several difficult to learn skills.
At this rate, if you guys continue working hard and putting in serious effort both at school and in all the other challenging activities that you choose to participate in, you will grow up to be incredibly well-rounded, creative, smart, healthy, and happy individuals.
Love you with all my heart and brain! ❤️ 🧠 🥳
Paani