Should Life Be Easy or Hard?
I know. It’s a mixture of both. But let’s explore this question.
Life ought to be the pursuit of challenges commensurate with one’s skill, yet still of such difficulty to demand growth. This is a philosophy many advocate. It appeals to a person who desires achievement. They want that drug-like hit that comes from solving a brain-ache-inducing problem. They crave it from defeating a formidable foe. To such people, an easy life is a cop-out, a dereliction of a natural duty — it’s weak. If you aren’t doing at least one thing that frightens you every day, you’re leaving a part of life itself on the table. Instead, you're choosing the trappings of comfort and all its stagnating properties. Ok. Fine. There’s a logic to that.
But it occurred to me upon thinking back to times where I did difficult things — it was often easy. Not always, but most of the time. This is, of course, a semantic issue — what are we considering ‘easy’ or ‘hard’? In my view, it comes down to one word: resistance.
There was a period in my life where I spent many hours every day playing the guitar and piano. It seems unimaginable to me now. Was I dedicated? Disciplined? Obsessed? The latter yes, but those first two… not so much. It felt natural to play that much (emphasis on the word play). A wave of positive emotions carried me along. It was a smooth, resistance-less existence. There were no considerations of time or effort. There were no moments of forcing myself to pick up or sit down at the instrument. In retrospect, the achievement might appear impressive. Yet, I find it misleading to describe anything done under such circumstances as difficult.
Have you ever wandered through a dense forest at night? If so, please stop doing that. Also, you might want to consider being a horror movie villain. Each step forward is a negotiation with unseen roots, branches and night creatures. This is life when misaligned — a constant battle against the invisible forces. In contrast, when aligned, our path, though dark and obscured at times, feels intuitive, as if guided.
It is taboo to want an easy life these days. It’s synonymous with entitlement. You’d hardly respect someone who puts the pursuit of such an existence as their main desire. Difficulty is also glamourised. The more difficult your path, the more admiration (or sympathy) you elicit. But passions pull you along as much as they demand sacrifice. Much of the impactful work we do comes from moments of effortlessness. When we move with life, or in other words, away from resistance, we move faster and further.
An easy life can be a sign of alignment. Perhaps even a sign of wisdom. It’s a ruthless purge, an uncompromising philosophical leanness. The more I think about it, making your life easy is… kind of hard.
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I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts and ideas as it gets me to ponder for hours. My thoughts: change is uncomfortable and growth is painful. However, allowing yourself NOT to be defined by others or social labels is hard. I would like to do what is hard and embrace the more playful discovery aspect of myself.
Alignment and resistance. It is kinda like we choose what is difficult or easy for us, yet not entirely so, as what we choose to align/resist are also determined by a whole range of factors and experiences, not all of which are within our control. That which constitute " us " - is not really us/ up to us, which is a scary thought. Many times, we resist something due to our perceived threat of it, which is valid and understandable - so if someone "is making things difficult for him/herself", its not exactly their own fault.
This effortlessness, which is paradoxically priceless, sounds good since we are moving " faster and further " ; yet, moving fast and away need not always be a good thing - sometimes, staying put and keeping it slow is more ideal... or at least safer. Any unaligned movement can be a mere waste of time , energy and life. Resistance may be more painful and difficult, but non-resistance can make life less meaningful, or feel like one has less personal agency and power - which can be kinda worse for some people. People have their experiences and are/form/become who they are, as long as they think and feel they are not wasting their lives, easy or difficult...not very sure whether it matters.
But I have to say, I like your acute observations.