Matt Furey

Many moons ago I went for leisurely stroll of about 30 km.

At one point, in a forest, Google Maps told me to turn right, over the bridge to cross the river and continue walking in the same direction.

Except…

There wasn’t a bridge in sight.

I went back and forth a few times, thinking I must have passed it somewhere and it might be hidden in between some bushes.

But no luck.

The river, however, was small enough for me to consider just jumping over it. It was a big enough river to make it a challenging jump, but the ground where I was walking was also a bit higher than the ground on the other side, so I had some luck there.

After an embarrassingly short time of thinking, I decided to just go for it and jump. After all, what’s the worst that could happen?

Anyway.

I got ready, took a step back to get myself a running start, and went for it.

The good news?

I made it over the river, all in one piece, and without getting wet.

The bad news?

I now found myself a foot deep in what turned out to be a wet and barely solid underground of mud (which wasn’t clear just by looking at it). So much so that I lost my shoe right after I jumped and tried to continue walking.

So there I was, happy that I made it and didn’t get wet, yet my feet, shoes, and bottom of my trousers were covered in mud.

Now, I’m not trying to dissuade you from jumping over rivers—I’d happily do it again. But this experience did bring up a good point…

No matter how much you prepare, or how well you plan everything out, there will always be stuff you didn’t (or couldn’t) account for that’ll mess up your plan and alter the course you’ll have to take.

Luckily, as I’ve heard the great Matt Furey say “Nothing bad ever happens to a writer”.

And that’s why I highly recommend you to check out Email Valhalla so you can learn how to write better emails that’ll get you paid ( so nothing bad will ever happen to you).

Click here for more information about Email Valhalla: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

I recently watched an interview with Sir Michael Caine where he talked about one of his philosophies of life, which he called “use the difficulty”.

“Use the difficulty” originated from when he was still a young actor rehearsing for a stage play.

In this particular scene, Sir Michael Caine was waiting behind the stage, waiting for his cue to enter the stage, while two other actors were acting out an improvised scene between a husband and a wife. Both actors got carried away during the improvised scene and started throwing things around the stage, including the man who threw a chair that blocked the door through which Michael Caine was supposed to enter the stage.

In that moment he just took his head through the door and went ”I’m sorry sir, I can’t get in”.

To which the other actor replied, “What do you mean?”

“Well there’s a chair in the way, sir” Michael Caine replied.

To which the older and more experienced actor simply replied, “Use the difficulty. If it’s a comedy, fall over the chair, if it’s a drama pick it up and smash it”. He said it in such a nonchalant and simple way, solely focused on acting on stage, sort of like an off-the-cuff comment, but Michael Caine found this such an inspiring and insightful response he took and applied it to his personal life.

So now whenever something bad happens in his life, he immediately goes “How can I work with this, what can I get out of this, and how can I use this to my advantage?”

Even if you only improve the situation 1% by using something bad that happened to you, you’re still further along than you would’ve been otherwise.

This also nicely reminds me of something I’ve heard the great Matt Furey say, “Nothing bad ever happens to a writer”.

Meaning if something happened to you, use it the best (and maybe the only) way you know, write about it. The least you can do is profit from the otherwise “bad situation”.

This goes for everything.

Whether it’s a divorce, a dead in the family, or even your first 1-star book review.

Use it, write about it, turn it into something positive (or at least ‘less bad’), and get something out of it… which in the case of a 1-star book review can be a whole lot more sale if approached from the correct angle… but more about that in another email.

In the meantime, if you want to improve your writing game, more specifically your daily email writing game (and make it easier for you to use the difficulty) then I highly suggest you check out Email Valhalla and see what it has in store for you.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla