Effort or Ease?

Humans will do just about anything to save themselves... except get down to business and do the ongoing hard work that living well requires. 

It is sensible to seek to save energy, but eventually, always taking the easy way only destroys discipline and delivers distress and downfall. 

Every time. 

In life, there is no easy button, as much as they tell us that they can help us win the battle between ease and effort if we buy the right things. 

''The more you buy, the easier it gets'', is the promise.

The allure of consumerism lies in its promise of convenience, instant gratification, and an easier lifestyle. 

However, this path only leads to an empty fulfillment, and a disconnect from the values, meaningful experiences, and deeper insights that come from consistent hard work.

Driving a car is easier than walking or riding a bike. Processed and fast food is easier than food you have made from scratch. A plug-in bread maker is easier than kneading bread. Slumping in front of a screen is easier than engaging in more healthful alternatives.

Lets face it - we love easy. In my experience it is hard to resist the conveniences of consumerism, but resist we must.

Humans have always known that there is only one way that leads to true happiness and fulfillment, and that way is through doing the hard work. 

Talk about an inconvenient truth. But try as we might, we can find no way around it. Too little work and I become soft and complacent, and things that need to get done, do not.

On the other hand, all work and no play leads to stress and burnout. 

Each of us must first do the hard work of finding out how much hard work we as individuals have to do in order to do what we need to do.

''There’s a pill for that'' solutions, as easy as they seem, are not the answer. That is what has brought consumer societies to the point of being among the least happy, and least healthy on the planet.

Easier does not mean better. And doing the hard work pays off in a multitude of amazing ways. The harder one works, the easier it gets, and the more that gets done. That can be immensely satisfying, not to mention productive and liberating.

Consumer products can make life easier, but the vital hard work remains. The best way to get work done, is to get work done. 

The alternative is indulging in shortcuts, cutting corners, and eventually, luxuriating in laziness, or more seriously, slipping into sloth.

What do you think? Is it better to do the hard work, or should we take full advantage of the easy button that consumerism offers? 

Ease, or effort? 

Or is a balance between the two possible?