Challenging the cult of easy

I was brought up with an idea that I think is quickly being thrown out of the window:

And I stand by that.

Does hard work and time guarantee success? No. Of course it doesn’t. But that’s not today’s point.

Somewhere along the way, hard work was pushed out of the way.

Somewhere along the way we started to glamourize ideas that hard work is a myth and instead you just have to be stood on the magic spot or you read the right piece of advice at the right time, or the most entitled bullshit out of all — hard work doesn’t apply because you deserve it.

And it’s a crock of shit.

All of it.

Yet it’s prevelance is only growing.

Products are sold with ease as the unique selling point:

Lose a stone in five days. Start your business and reach five figures in five weeks. The easy way to land your dream job. Lose weight while you slob out with this amazing vibrating stomach strap. Learn Italian in two days with this new app.

Now, I’m not one for doing things the most convoluted way ever when there are simpler ways just to prove a point.

Yes there are smarter ways of working. But they still involve WORK.

If you’re in the world of online businesses, you’ll recognise the amount of posts where someone is looking for a quick way to make money from home with minimal effort. This idea of so-called 'passive income’. And they’re there because of how prevelent this myth has become and how damn tempting it is to buy into at times.

It’s like that bloody ridiculous book The Four Hour Work Week. Spare me.

When did we get to the point when everyone decided that achieving huge goals or big transformations should be easy?

If I decide I want to slim down and lose a large amount of weight, I know it will take a whole lot of hard work.

If I decide I want to train as doctor, that takes a whole heap of training and hard work.

That’s not to say the work wouldn’t be incredibly rewarding and fun at times, but it’s still work.

Work can light you up, make you feel alive, feel fun and be incredibly satisfying. And that can make the work feel less hard. I’d argue that the work of that comes easiest to you is what you’re meant to do, because you’re deep into the flow state. But that doesn’t mean the effort decreases and you get to spend nine hours a day on a beach in Thailand instead.

Think about overnight successes. Its true what people say about them — you don’t see the five, ten years before that. Instead you focus on the outcome and wonder what miracle they pulled out of the hat. Then you think, huh how can I get me some of that.

It’s like Disneyland for adults.

But there’s a huge hole in this thinking.

On one hand we celebrate people working hard when they have achieved something — we recognise the toil, the graft, the work. Think about athletes for example.

But when we talk about achieving goals for ourselves?

We want the shortcut. We want the hacks. We want to hear from the people who have somehow found the loop hole and apply it ourselves.

But we can’t have it both ways.

And it’s time it was recognised that one of these ways? It’s a myth.

Of course there’s always the anomoly. But look around and you’ll probably find a whole heap of wealth, privilege and power around the corner.

So next time you see something that’s too good to be true, embrace your inner cynic.

Cherish your big dreams, follow them and WORK towards them.

There are no real short-cuts, there’s no way of doing it that prevents the struggles.

It’s all part of the process.

We might live in a cult of ease but that doesn’t mean you have to be a part of it.

I’d much rather spend the next five years working hard than spend five years waiting for a miracle that’s never coming and realise how much I could have done if I’d just done the fucking work in the first place.

Like you can’t have beans on toast without the beans or the toast, you can’t have achievable dreams without the hard work.

Find ways to make it fun, celebrate along the way and get stuck in.

And start now.

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