What If It's Not Hard? What If It's Just Unfamiliar?

One simple shift in perspective could change the way you approach almost everything you want to accomplish in life.

Imagine someone handing you a scrambled Rubik's cube and asking you to solve it.

What's your first thought?

If you've never learned how to solve one, you might look at all those mixed-up colors and think, There's no way I could do that.

It looks complicated. There are too many possibilities. You wouldn't even know where to begin.

Now imagine that same person pulls out their phone, opens a tutorial, and shows you a step-by-step process for solving the cube.

Suddenly, your answer changes.

You might still have a lot to learn, but now you can see a path forward. You have instructions to follow. You have something to practice. You have a reason to believe you might actually be able to do it.

Here's the interesting part.

The Rubik's cube didn't change. You did.

Well, more specifically, your understanding of what was possible changed.

And that brings us to an idea I absolutely love:

Nothing you want to accomplish is either easy or hard. It's either familiar or unfamiliar.

Think about how often we approach something new.

We want to build a business, but we don't know how to get customers.

We want to become better at communicating, but we don't know what to say.

We want to develop new habits, but we don't know how to make them stick.

We want to achieve something we've never achieved before, but because we've never done it, we don't know where to start.

And what do we tell ourselves?

This is too hard.

I'm not good at this.

I don't think I can do it.

Maybe this just isn't for me.

But how do we know?

We haven't learned the process. We haven't developed the skills. We haven't practiced long enough to understand what we're doing.

We're judging our ability to achieve an outcome based on our lack of experience with the process required to get there.

That's a little like looking at a scrambled Rubik's cube, having no idea how to solve it, and deciding you're incapable of ever solving one.

You're confusing what you don't know how to do with what you can't do.

Those are two very different things.

Remember learning to drive?

At first, there was so much to think about. The pedals. The mirrors. The steering wheel. The traffic. The rules. Everything required your attention.

It might have felt overwhelming.

But eventually, after enough practice, many of those actions became almost automatic.

Or think about using a new piece of technology. The interface looks confusing. You can't find what you're looking for. Nothing seems to make sense.

Then you learn where everything is, understand how the different features work, and start using it without having to think about every step.

The technology didn't necessarily become simpler.

You became more familiar with it.

I've experienced this firsthand with the Rubik's cube.

I used to look at one and feel completely bewildered. I had no idea how someone could possibly take all those mixed-up colors and organize them into six perfect sides.

Then I looked up a tutorial.

I learned a routine. I practiced it. I started recognizing patterns. Eventually, I could solve the cube without needing to follow the tutorial every time.

And with practice, I became faster and more comfortable doing it.

I didn't need to magically become more capable.

I needed to learn how.

That experience is a reminder that our current level of understanding doesn't have to determine our future level of ability.

Here's where this idea becomes especially important.

How many of us are waiting to feel ready before we take action?

We want to feel confident before we start a business.

We want to know what we're doing before we try something new.

We want to feel comfortable before we step outside our comfort zone.

We want to be good at something before we allow ourselves to be beginners.

But how do you become familiar with something you've never done?

How do you develop confidence in a process you haven't practiced?

How do you become good at something without first being inexperienced at it?

You can't skip the learning process.

And waiting until something feels easy before you begin can keep you waiting indefinitely, because familiarity is often the result of taking action, not a requirement for taking it.

You don't have to feel confident to begin.

You can begin while you're uncertain.

You don't have to know every step.

You can learn the next step.

You don't have to be good at it yet.

You can practice until you improve.

The goal isn't to eliminate every uncomfortable feeling before you start. The goal is to stop treating discomfort as proof that you should stop.

Sometimes, discomfort is simply what learning feels like.

Remember the Rubik's cube tutorial?

It changes your answer as to whether or not you believe you can do it because it gives you something you didn't have before: a process.

And that's an important lesson.

Just because you don't know how to do something doesn't mean you have to invent the solution yourself.

Someone may have already figured it out.

There may be a tutorial, a book, a mentor, a proven system, or a sequence of steps that makes the process easier to understand.

You may not need more motivation. You may need better instructions.

You may not need to try harder at something you've never been taught to do. You may need to learn a more effective approach.

And you may not need to spend another six months wondering whether you're capable of achieving something when you could spend that time learning how to move toward it.

This is one reason I believe so strongly in systems and processes.

A good system doesn't necessarily eliminate the work. It helps you understand what work needs to be done, in what order, and how to do it.

It takes something that feels confusing and gives you a place to begin.

And once you have a place to begin, you can start building familiarity through action and experience.

The next time you find yourself thinking, This is too hard, I want you to pause for a moment.

Instead of accepting that thought as the final answer, consider asking yourself a different question.

What if this isn't too hard? What if I just haven't learned how to do it yet?

Then get curious.

What specifically don't you know?

What skill do you need to develop?

Who could teach you?

What process could you follow?

What's one small step you could take today to become a little more familiar with what currently feels unfamiliar?

You don't need to solve the entire Rubik's cube in one sitting.

You need to learn the first move.

Then the next.

Then the next.

And with enough practice, what once looked impossible may become something you can do without even thinking about it.

Not everything will be easy. Some goals require considerable effort, time, resources, and persistence. Learning a process doesn't guarantee a particular outcome.

But don't let the fact that something is unfamiliar convince you that it's beyond your reach before you've even given yourself the opportunity to learn.

Think about that for a moment.

If you can only accomplish the things you already know how to do, how much room is there for growth?

Every new skill you've ever developed began with something you didn't know.

Every process you've mastered was once unfamiliar.

Every area in which you've improved required you to move beyond your previous level of understanding.

You weren't born knowing how to do everything you can do today.

You learned.

You practiced.

You made adjustments.

You gained experience.

And you became more capable along the way.

So perhaps the next time you look at a goal that seems intimidating, you don't need to ask yourself whether it's easy or hard.

Perhaps you need to ask yourself whether you're willing to learn what it takes to pursue it.

Because the difference between where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow may not be some extraordinary ability you lack.

It may be a process you haven't learned, a skill you haven't developed, or an experience you haven't yet had.

Stop treating unfamiliarity as evidence of inability.

You don't have to know how to do it today.

You just have to be willing to learn.

And remember:

Nothing you want to accomplish is either easy or hard. It's either familiar or unfamiliar.

What's something you've been putting off because it feels too hard? Share it in the comments below...