You Can Do Anything Hard for Ten Seconds
There was a television show popular when I wrote my first book called The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. In the very first episode, you learn a simple mantra that quietly guides the main character’s life:
You can do anything hard for ten seconds.
When I first heard it, I was working full-time, building my first business, and writing a book—all at the same time. If I’m honest, it was a hard season. Late nights. Early mornings. Long days.
But here’s what I learned then, and what I want you to know now: We don’t get to avoid hard, but we do get to choose our hard.
You choose the hard of following your dreams, or the hard that comes when you wake up filled with regret that you didn’t start sooner.
During this season, I repeated that mantra to myself over and over. When I didn’t want to keep going. When the work felt heavy. When quitting would’ve been easier. I shared it with anyone else who was trying to do something brave, something uncertain, something meaningful.
And the truth I learned by living it is this: Hard things are done in ten-second increments.
Ten seconds turns into twenty, turns into minutes. Minutes turn into hours. Hours turn into finished projects and realized dreams. And realized dreams compound. They compound into a life that says “I chose me.” They compound into they kind of person who believes in herself, who trusts that she can figure things out, someone who is willing to roll up her sleeves and do the work, <s>even</s> especially when it’s uncomfortable.
But here’s the damndest thing about it:
Most people underestimate the power of ten seconds…
They see the big goal. They fantasize about the big goal. But they neglect the ten seconds right in front of them, the only part of achieving that goal that actually matters.
There’s something beautifully contradictory about the phrase you can do anything hard for ten seconds.
Because it’s hard… and it’s also easy.
And that, I think, is one of the truest metaphors for life.
Anything worth having will require you to show up: At 5 a.m. In the rain. In the cold. In the dark. Sometimes alone. Shit, most of the time alone. It will ask you to lift heavier than you’re used to. To stretch past what’s comfortable. To fight through the “no’s” in order to find the “yes’s”… To keep going during easy seasons and hard ones.
But here’s the secret: feeling follows action. You don’t wait to feel ready. You act, and the confidence comes after. Self-trust is built on the promises we keep to ourselves. Self-confidence is the outcome those hard actions compounded over time.
And you can do anything hard for ten seconds.
My Wish For You
That you know, deep in your bones, that anything you want in this life is within your grasp… and that it’s not miles away… It’s ONLY ten seconds away. And then another ten. And another.
And when something feels overwhelming, come back to this truth. You don’t need to do everything. You just need to do the next ten seconds.
And you, my darling, can do anything hard for ten seconds.
