0085: The Difference Between “Difficult” And “Impossible”

Raw transcript:

we look at things sometimes as either
being doable
or not being doable impossible versus
possible and sometimes we extend that to
the degree of possibility with words
like easy or difficult
and I’m not trying to go through the
dictionary with you but I want to make
sure you understand the difference
between difficult and impossible and two
things that you can add to that equation
that changes it from one to the other
and I’m going to do that in this episode
of the vo Heroes podcast
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I was on a session with a client a
private coaching session and she said
to something that we had talked about
potentially doing in the future for her
oh that’s going to be impossible
and I stopped and I asked her why she
thought that this particular thing that
other actors in voice Talent have done
for throughout time throughout the you
know going back to Greek Theater right
and and she said it’s just it’s just I
got it’s just I I don’t know that I can
do that I said aha okay so there’s a
difference
you don’t know whether you can do it so
you immediately lump it into impossible
so let’s talk about this as you look at
this particular thing it’s difficult it
looks difficult it’s been difficult for
every actor I don’t even remember
specifically what it was but this
concept of having to find an agent do a
demo uh you know look for a casting
director that you can maybe take a
general meeting with you know all of
these things are not things you wake up
in the morning and like making yourself
a cup of coffee you feel like doing or
could do
but difficult does not equal impossible
and there’s a reason for that the reason
for that is you haven’t added two things
time patience time and knowledge
so it’s amazing how impossible tasks
become not only possible
but manageable and in some cases even
likely and yeah I did that achievable
when you add
knowledge
and patience so here’s a quick example I
used this the other day
somebody comes up to you and says uh
yeah I want you to write me a thousand
page novel
and I need it by Friday
okay we can both agree that that is
impossible it just is
but if you add knowledge hey in addition
to meeting this thousand page novel
um I’m going to make sure that you have
training in
storytelling and writing and writing
long length documents like novels uh
looking at the whole authorship thing
you could do the training there and I’m
gonna be patient I’m gonna wait for it
I’m gonna give you time I didn’t give
you time when I said Friday but let’s
just say
six months a year five years ten years
all during that time you’re gaining
knowledge
and you’re not under the pressure The
Impossible pressure of trying to get
something done too quickly
now I know in another episode I said you
should really take a look at your bias
for Action uh but we really are talking
about things that you look at and at
first glance you say this is impossible
ask yourself these things can I get more
knowledge on it
and is the deadline really the deadline
or can I take the time to be patient
hmm
so my question for you is when you look
at things that seem impossible when you
look up that mountain and you go ah I
never get to the top of that mountain
but yet sometimes in your life you have
tell me in the comments below did that
occur because you got more knowledge
because you understood it better did
that occur because you had enough time
to get it done did that occur because
you had patience with yourself let me
know and while you’re at it you know hit
the notification Bell if you want to be
notified when these come out subscribe
to the channel you can hit the like or
the the share button if you want to to
you know give this to somebody who you
think might benefit from it I’d love it
for you to do that I’m David H Lawrence
the 17th I thank you so much for
watching and for listening and I will
see you in the next episode of the vo
Heroes podcast
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