Simple vs. Easy

SIMPLE solutions are often not EASY.

Losing weight is simple:  eat less, exercise more.  Sounds easy.

But go into any bookstore or local library and you will find entire sections dedicated to the endeavor of dieting.  Diets that promise thinner waistlines by partaking of fare like seaweed soup or tofu burgers.

Next to the diet section is the fitness section where one can find over one hundred titles on RUNNING.  Yes, running.  How to run faster, farther, with shoes, without shoes...

I suspect there will be a section dedicated to breathing soon...

When you get home from the bookstore, flip on the tube after midnight and see how fast late-night comedies segue into a barrage of exercise infomercials.  Infomercials touting triple-dog-dare-power-yoga or getting mega-ripped abs while sleeping. All for three easy payments of $39.95.
  
Saving money for retirement is also simple:  spend less, save more.  Sounds pretty easy.

But after perusing the diet section, walk over to the personal finance section.  You'll find a plethora of "investment" advice.  Advice that includes enticing opportunities like "executive income while working from home," "real estate investing with no money down."  For the pessimist investor there is advice a plenty on ways to prepare for the coming apocalypse by parking one's nest egg into gold, freeze-dried food, guns and ammo!

How did we get here?

I have a theory.

Exercising, dieting, saving for retirement...raising good kids--anything worthwhile in other words--takes discipline, consistency and hard work.

And it's THOSE THREE WORDS (i.e. virtues)  that take the easy out of simple.

It is the LACK of those three virtues why we have stores dedicated to providing slick covered books, videos, powders and pills to prop up our sagging dedication and discipline when things don't feel quite so...well...easy.

Training for a marathon (26.2 miles) is pretty straightforward: run 4-5 days per week for 18 weeks while slowly increasing the mileage.

Simple.

Disciplining oneself to CONSISTENTLY run 4-5 days per week for 18 weeks--even in bad weather.  Well...not so easy.

So here is my idea:

Instead of zipping to the nearest running store and grabbing every running book, running video, and a stash of bars, gels, and gu's--along with a heart-rate monitor and any other electronic gadget one can velcro to one's body to fool us into believing that training is easy... 

Why don't we just recognize that most of the things that we seek to grow in our life that are worth growing--our health, our finances, our families--are pretty simple to grow.

But come at a cost.

But often NOT paid in money.

Or gadgets, or books, or videos.

But instead, are often paid in large denominations of the virtues discipline, consistency and hard work.

Three virtues that are simple.

Very simple.

But not easy.

AMJ