Embracing the Path of Effort: Why the Easy Way Often Isn’t the Best Way

We spend a lot of our time trying to find an easier way to do things, but there are certain things that are not subject to our attempts to avoid doing what is necessary for a positive outcome. Much of the time, we pursue the “easy way,” which takes twice as long as the right way.

Because we live in the information age, our technologies dominate how we think about the work we do, as though we are closer to computers than human beings. We borrow words from technology, like “I don’t have the bandwidth.” We claim we are multitasking, something a computer chip is capable of, but humans are not.

It is important to know that nature is a lot older and wiser than you, so you are better off doing what is natural than trying to cheat nature. This tiny planet covered with water is around 4 billion years old. You are quite a bit younger than nature. When you try to cheat nature, it cheats you back.

Cheating Your Relationships

We want good relationships with our families, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances. We also want to have good and effective relationships with our existing clients and the new contacts we meet. There are rules for relationships, and breaking these rules leads to poor relationships, if you don’t ruin them altogether.

1. Offer Your Presence: The first rule is your presence. Spending more time on phone calls, text messages, or emails doesn’t produce the same effect as showing up to spend time face-to-face.
2. Give Your Full Attention: Your full attention is a gift. The tiny screen of infinite distractions can cause the person you are with to believe that something else is more important than they are.
3. Care Deeply: You must care for the other person in a relationship, be it a family member, a friend, or someone else. Your interest is evidence that you care, and a lack of caring, when felt, can damage your relationship.
4. Your Loyalty: Once, a person told me that someone was speaking ill of something I wrote. He was loyal to me, which is why he told me, even though I never worry about the opinions of people that are not going to attend my funeral. If someone speaks differently behind a person’s back, they are harming the relationship, even if no one knows.

If you try to cheat your way to an outstanding relationship by working around these basic rules, nature will cheat you back and deny you of the relationships you want.

Last week a client asked me to join them for their book club. They read The Negativity Fast. They sent me a link to a Teams meeting, but I insisted I would drive to their facility to be there in person. It was important for them, so it was important for me.

Cheating Your Way to Health

Everyone wants to be in good health. These same everyones also know how to be healthy, but they look for shortcuts. Nature dictates five fundamentals to health.

1. Sleep: Sleep is incredibly important. There is no way to cheat sleep, even if you drink chamomile tea and take melatonin before you go to sleep listening to white noise. We need 7 to 8 hours of sleep. A few months ago, my mom called me at 8:30 PM, and asked me why I was getting ready to sleep. She asked me if I was a toddler because I am always asleep before 9:00 PM. Going to bed early can help you sleep better.
2. Hydration: We are made up of water, among other things. But if you are dehydrated, you may have headaches and generally feel bad. Gatorade, sugary drinks, or that foul nasty Red Bull work against nature. Once the sugar and caffeine subside, you may feel worse than you felt before ingesting these substances.
3. Exercise: You may lift heavy weights, something I used to do until I sat down with a doctor who insisted I stop lifting heavy. I took his advice. I walk 2.5 miles every weekday with Cher, and on weekends, we do close to five miles. There is no way to cheat exercise, your body knows when you don’t do the work.
4. Diet: It is easy to eat processed food, especially if you are busy. These foods are working against your health. Instead, choose salad with a lot of colors. Lean meats. Not too much food in general. Maybe a little bacon occasionally. Your body is going to react to your diet.
5. Mental Health: Here is something to meditate on. Your brain lives in your body. Your physical body can become toxic or malnourished when you eat poorly. But even if you eat clean, you can improve your health by taking time to meditate, pray, practice yoga, or do anything that can reduce your stress and your anxiety. The Dalai Lama says the best meditation is sleep.

Cheating Wealth Creation

I watched a woman on Instagram who made $5 million in a month. She didn’t explain what she did to create enough value to earn that kind of money in such a short time. After I watched her for a while, I caught on to the scam: She was going to tell others how to do what she did. A few days later there were a dozen other women doing the same thing. Call me incredulous, but the Instagram woman’s wealth came from others who wanted to make money fast.

1. Get-Rich-Quick Schemes: I’d rather not get rich slowly, but any pitch that you can get rich quick is a sign that the person hustling you is going to get rich quick. These schemes work because everyone wants more money. Some people, after being burned by a charlatan, will believe they did something wrong and sign up for another get-rich scheme. Nature will not be cheated. You must invest money in some vehicle that will multiply your wealth over time.
2. The Lottery: Yes, someone wins millions of dollars with a ticket. But your odds of winning the lottery are the same as the chance you have of being mistaken for Brad Pitt or Sandra Bullock. Warren Buffet’s number-one rule is never lose money. His second rule is remember rule 1.
3. Playing the Stock Market: When you are young, you are impatient. You buy stocks, and then some know-nothing gives you a tip, and you sell your stocks and buy a dud. A lot of folks will tell you to buy so they can liquidate the stocks they want to unload. Instead of trying to cheat nature, buy companies you will want to hold forever.

If you have been looking for an easy way to do something, instead, you should give yourself over to the task. If you want the best outcome, just do what is necessary.