People occasionally ask me, was XXX difficult? To pass an exam, deliver a presentation, do something or fix something.
And what does “difficult” mean? I have only one answer for this: something is “difficult” when it creates an unmitigated discomfort (physical or emotional) and there’s nothing you can do about it but endure it or somehow reduce it.
For example, carrying bags from the supermarket home on foot every day is difficult. Dealing with idiots is difficult. Running a marathon without running experience is difficult.
Anything not associated with discomfort cannot be difficult by definition. If public speaking does not cause discomfort, then it cannot be difficult. It can be interesting, or as Americans say, challenging. If a task occupied your brain all your working and non-working hours, and you eventually solved it – that task was not difficult, but interesting. If someone runs the same marathon without feeling significant physical discomfort (to some extent) or when the discomfort is compensated by euphoria, then it is interesting, not difficult.
Although, in this scheme, you can change difficult work into interesting work, but it’s not always possible to change a difficult life into an interesting one.
P.S. My computer crashed almost simultaneously with me hitting the “publish” button. But I made it!
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 