When do you want to suffer?

Don’t we often want to get things done or receive material goods and accolades as soon as possible? The easy way looks often like the most obvious and desirable one.

However, as Les Brown puts it so well, “if you do what’s easy, your life will be hard. However, if you do what’s hard, your life will be easy.” When you choose the easy way, it benefits you probably in the short run but costs you more in the long term. Additionally, the easy way seems to give you rather a less relaxed feeling of having done something valuable. Suffering seems to be an inherent part of our life. Even “to love is to suffer, to suffer for and with others.“

What’s interesting is that people often overestimate what they are able to achieve in the short run but underestimate what they can achieve in the mid- or longer term. So “active patience” seems to be a solid option. That means being patient, but still executing consistently because consistency compounds.

This principle keeps your stress level hopefully on a more balanced level. It’s on you – you have the choice – so choose wisely!