Ok, fine, “easy” as a concept isn’t inherently bad, but our current obsession with it absolutely is.
We spend so much time and energy trying to make everything in our lives as easy as making a ham sandwich that we lose out on the value of engaging in legitimately difficult things. Imagine where we’d be if all of the pioneers in computer science had decided that the really cool idea they had would be way too damn hard to implement and that they’d rather just crack open a cold one and watch LOST (or the equivalent). Aside from the fact that neither this Web site nor the device you’re using to read this would exist, we’d still be driving to the bank to deposit money, schlepping our big bags of undeveloped film to the photo-mat and we’d be bored out of our skin on line at the grocery store because we wouldn’t have Angry Birds. It’d suck. Thankfully, though, it doesn’t because these smart guys and gals decided that they’d rather kick “hard” in the nads than sit around withering.
Now, like I said before, I’m all for certain things being easy (like making a ham sandwich). Hell, I’m fine with anything you hate doing being easy. But, at some point, your body and brain are going to atrophy if you don’t put them to work. So, the trick is to find something hard that you actually enjoy and then do the crap out of that thing.
For me (believe it or not), one of my “hard” things is writing. It’s not because I’m necessarily trying to overcome a spectacular lack of writing ability, but I’m just not one of those people that can churn out thousands of quality words per day (at least, not without a great deal of effort). But, despite all that, I really love writing and I know that the only way to improve is to do it. So, I do. There are plenty of times when I hit a stride and the words seem to pour effortlessly from my brain to the keyboard. There are also times when I feel like this:
I attack this problem by planting my ass in the chair and writing as often as I am able. Even if, by all accounts, I’m stinking up the whole room, I sit and I do. I do because I promised myself that I was going to give this my very best effort and my very best effort doesn’t watch American Idol or whatever.
Your “hard” thing could be anything: building model ships, preparing a competition-grade Beef Wellington, eating your own weight in dry cat food or writing and selling an electronic book. It doesn’t really matter so long as you actually give a crap about doing it well, even if it’s going to be a big challenge for you. Much like my unrelenting desire to not suck at writing, you must be driven by a desire to win/complete/succeed. I don’t mean that in the “kill anybody in your path” sort of way, but rather that you decide that you’re going to see something through, regardless of the difficulty. Often times this even means committing to accomplishing something about which you’re utterly unsure of your own ability. That’s part of what makes “hard” so damn satisfying.
And remember, most easy things are easy precisely because a long time ago somebody decided that they’d break their back to make that very thing as easy as it is.
What’s your hard thing?
Photo by mckaysavage
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