Easy Is Hard To Do

It wasn’t long after Staples began showing their “Easy Button” commercials that I - and I’m sure the rest of us with imaginations - began pondering just what we would use a button like that for.

At the time, I couldn’t help but think how great it would be to have a button that would take the tasks and situations I was dealing with and simply fix them according to what would be reasonable to me.

There were moments when I wished so very much that things in my life would just come easy. After all, I deserved it didn’t I? I thought so, at least.

However, it’s easy to believe such a thing when the best solution seems to be the one that doesn’t involve putting forth any time or effort to achieve. Instead of working towards solutions or working for a good end result, it would have simply been more convenient to have it done for me.

If only it were indeed that easy.

Instead, many of us have to work hard for what we have, often sacrificing along the way to achieve a life that we might be able to call easier.

If I could call it anything, it would be a game that we continuously play, but never really win. We spend long hours refining our skills at our jobs in hopes of attaining a better position with shorter hours and better pay for an easier life.

There are obviously challenges along the way, adding weight to the mantra that “nothing in life is easy.” Perhaps with a new position comes new responsibilities or more responsibilities on top of those we already have.

Therefore, even as we ascend to easier stages of life, by our standards, maintaining such a level still takes a great deal of work.

So now comes the question that I have asked myself on more than one occasion: Is easy ever easy to attain? Will there ever be a moment when the things in life that challenge us magically seem to fall into place?

I believe so. But I don’t think it will come at a time that is convenient for us.

Instead, I think the moments where we are able to step back and say “wow, that was easy,” will continue to surprise us as they always have. They will stand as reminders that sometimes things just fall into place like a well-placed puzzle piece.

In the mean time, we will continue to work towards what we think will make life easier, ever improving our positions on the board for the game of life.

There will be failures along the way, but we will learn from those failures and use them to make our successes that much more significant.

We will show that while an easy button would be a wonderful tool to possess, it would also be an easy tool to abuse, providing an excuse to be lazy and giving us false senses of accomplishment and entitlement.

Because after all, sometimes the things that we appreciate most and are the proudest of, are the things for which we have worked the hardest.