Life can be bloody difficult. We all know that.

Indeed, there is no life without it that exists, has ever existed or ever will. It is a feature and not a bug

All of us will face issues, challenges and problems no matter who we are or where we're from.

The challenges we face may well be distinct, the circumstances in which we have to deal with them completely different and some people certainly have it far tougher than others.

Nevertheless, ultimately no one is spared. We will all feel its burden upon our backs. We will all feel its sting upon our skin.

Therefore, if it exists and is bound to exist, the question is then how do we deal with it?

For a compelling and powerful answer to this question, we can look to the English actor, Michael Caine.

The legendary cockney thespian will be familiar to us in the form of numerous iconic characters, including as the sagacious butler, Alfred, in The Dark Knight Trilogy.

He comes out with several notable quotables in the films including this gem to Bruce Wayne.

"Why do we fall sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up."

But it isn't only on the big screen that Caine dispenses wisdom. He does it in real life too.

While chatting with talk show host Michael Parkinson, he explained how he learned a life lesson that became a key component of his approach to life and something of a mantra for him.

When asked by Parky about his philosophy for life of "use the difficulty" he told the story of a problem that confronted him as a young actor when he was rehearsing a stage play.

He had to come into a scene through a door, but there was an unforeseen issue. He said:

"There was an improvised scene between a husband and wife going on and then they got carried away and they started throwing things."

"He threw a chair and it lodged in the doorway, and I went to open the door and I just got my head round, and I said 'I'm sorry sir, I can't get in'."

It was at that point the older and more experienced actor told the young Michael Caine to:

"Use the difficulty"

A confused Michael Caine still didn't quite get it. He asked:

"What do you mean?"

This was the response he got:

"If it's a comedy, fall over it, if it's a drama, pick it up and smash it."

Caine took the lesson on board, but not only in the context of acting. He applies this simple yet powerful philosophy to his life in general.

It is something that he has passed on to his children and they now apply it to their own lives too when anything bad happens.

Caine explained to Parkinson:

"There's never anything so bad that you cannot use that difficulty. if you can use it a quarter of one per cent to your advantage, you're ahead, you didn't let it get you down."

Now of course this is often more easily said than done. The nature of a difficulty after all is that it is bloody well difficult. So, it's not going to be easy, pretty much by definition.

Life is liable to hit you in the face like a rusty shovel on more than one occasion. We face hardship. We get struck down by debilitating illnesses. We watch the people we love endure terrible suffering. We also watch them die.

No one is so fortunate as to completely escape life's arbitrary cruelty and its tribulations.

When we are confronted with a difficulty, the fact that it has happened lies far beyond the bounds of our control. Over that, we cannot be master or lord.

But we are imbued with the light of agency. We can control how we respond.

A difficulty isn't just a difficulty. It's a potential opportunity. It is fuel. It is a resource.

So, use it.