Yes!
We do want it easy.
We want everything to be easy.
We’re all a bit lazy like that.
But it isn’t easy.
It takes work.
New things
When things are new, things are not easy.
When you’ve never done a thing, it would be a little silly to think it’s going to be easy.
It’s new.
That means you have no clear mental framework for how it’s going to go.
You just have to go.
You have to start.
You find out it’s hard. You figure out how to make it work. You move to the next level.
You look back and realize what you thought might be easy was not at all easy.
But you started.
That was key.
You had to start in order to learn what was not easy.
Then you changed.
Then you got the hang of it.
You learned a lesson.
If it had been easy, you would have never learned that.
Continuing things
As you go, it doesn’t get easier.
Why?
Things change.
Things always change.
People change.
You change.
When you thought the new was supposed to be easy, you worked till you understood it.
Now that you arrived at this level, you notice that getting better will require even more work.
It’s not easy here, either.
Why?
Because progressing further takes you into more new things.
You realize those things are important. You realize you don’t know or understand them. You’ll need to work hard to learn these new things, too.
And along the way, you realize you have to maintain what you’ve already learned—in addition to figuring out the next new things.
It’s hard.
It only remains easy if you fail to grow.
If you never strive for the next level, you’ll never get there.
There are always new things.
Always.
Old things
When you go really far, watch out.
There’s a danger here that feels wonderful.
It’s nostalgia.
You look back at that very first new level. You forget how hard it was because that thing is not hard anymore. You forget the difficulty.
You just look at the old level and revel in the feelings you felt long ago.
Nostalgia is a trap.
Those old things are good in that they show what you’ve overcome and how far you’ve come.
But the old things are bad if you feel drawn back to that time, longing for a time when things were not hard.
But wait. Those old things were difficult.
It took you a long time of working hard to make it to the first next level.
It’s the same kind of struggle you’re facing now.
You can’t go back. Literally, you cannot go back.
But if you’re not careful, longing for the good old days will distract you from working hard now.
You think you want it easy
You’ve paid your dues.
You deserve easy.
But easy is lazy.
Easy doesn’t make you grow.
Growing is better.
The next level is better.
It will take a lot of work, but that work will be worth it.
