The Story Behind Do Something Difficult

A question I get asked a lot is “Why did you break a board over your head?” I want to clear up some of the misconceptions people have about my motivation for making this video.

First of all, I wasn’t drunk or impaired in any way when I made the video. I was in a perfect state of mind and I was completely in control of my actions.

I was sitting in my room and I was overcome with a strong urge to make a motivational video. I was pretty annoyed at all of the uninspired people that surrounded me and I thought that if I made a motivational video that maybe they would stop being so depressing. After thinking it through for five minutes I decided that I would break a board over my head to demonstrate the point that things that seem difficult to do aren’t really that difficult.

I rushed to Home Depot and asked a clerk where the wood was. With supreme confidence I told him I was going to break a board over my head. He assumed I was some Karate master and I didn’t bother correcting him. A few years back my dad showed me how to break pinewood with my fists, and I figured it would be just as easy to do it with my head.

So why did I end up using plywood when everybody knows that its really hard to break? Well you see, pinewood comes in 5 foot long strips and I didn’t want to wait around while the clerk cut it into manageable pieces. Luckily for me, they had smaller boards already cut up. In my rush to get the wood and make the video I didn’t realize that I had grabbed plywood instead of pinewood.

I purchased 5 boards in case I screwed up and rushed home to make the video. Without ever stopping to think, I started filming on my Macbook. I didn’t like what I said the first time, so I tried again. The second take was the video that went on to become famous, and it was the first try breaking the board.

At no point did I ever think that I couldn’t break the board. At no point did it ever register that I had plywood instead of pinewood. It’s a good thing too, because if I had realized I had the wrong wood I probably wouldn’t have made the video. If I had grabbed the right kind of wood I would’ve broken it on the first try and it wouldn’t have been a funny video.

I watched the video once before I put it on youtube unedited. I shared it on facebook and it received immediate positive feedback. Well kinda. Some people were worried about my head, but that’s beside the point. One of my friends suggested I put it on Break.com as well, so I did. After a few days the original excitement died down and I forgot about the video.

A week later the video took on a life of its own.

Related posts:

1. The Life of Do Something Difficult

Tagged as: do something difficult, motivation