Somewhere along the way, ease and convenience have become the cultural defaults of our modern age. Although convenience does solve many problems, it often creates new ones in its wake.
Many of us are unaware of the quiet costs that accumulate when ease becomes our north star. That is, until it is too late.
My goal is to expose the downsides of excess comfort and ease so that we can choose wisely the path we want in this world.
It’s possible to veer too far off the path on either side with nearly anything in life. Overindulgence in ease can make you weak, flabby, and restless. Although too much stress will wear you down and leave you jaded.
The Path of Moderation
The way of wisdom is moderation. It’s found in knowing that you need both ease and difficulty for enjoyment and for becoming who you are meant to be.
I hope that these lessons stick with you well, as you ponder what we lose when everything is supposed to be easy.
1. The Virtue of Patience and the Ability to Tolerate Friction
The best rewards in life seem to accrue for those who are patient and toil away at problems despite their difficulty. This has always been the case and will likely remain so for many generations. However, today, fewer and fewer seem able to reap those rewards. A large portion of us are getting left behind, trapped in our own compulsive need for everything to be easy.
2. The Foundation of Competence
When you watch a master at work, he or she can appear to be acting effortlessly, without strain and frustration. However, a master’s expertise and skill were certainly built on a foundation of many trials and errors. To achieve excellence in your own pursuits, you’ll need to embrace the beginner’s phase of growth, which requires good old-fashioned effort sustained over time.
3. The Satisfaction of Struggle and Perseverance
To the sloth who prefers a life of ease, all pleasures are one-dimensional. A thing must be immediately gratifying and instantly pleasing to bring that person any degree of happiness in the moment. However, if you struggle and strive, there are many more levels of pleasure to be found—chiefly, a quiet satisfaction that lasts far longer than other pleasures and that is found only in knowing what you have overcome to get where you are.
4. The Ability to Maintain Attention on a Singular Goal
In a world of abundance, we now have the means to pursue novelty for its own sake. We can stimulate our senses with new things all the time: take up new hobbies, scroll endless feeds, or spend lavishly on new experiences. Although these things aren’t bad on their own, cumulatively, they are distracting us from the pleasure of depth. When you go deep into one hobby, reread a favorite book, or stay in one place, you build a layered familiarity with the people and objects around you that adds texture and richness to life—something even better than the next hit of novelty.
5. The Pride of Engaging in Ordinary Work
If you look around, you will notice an increase in gambling in its many forms: Sports betting, stock market options, and prediction markets have exploded in popularity. This is all downstream of our desire for ease. Nobody wants to work hard and see wealth grow steadily over time—too much effort! People would rather have the chance at riches without the real-world struggle. What they’ve lost is the old pleasure we used to (and still can) take in ordinary work—making plans, taking action, and enjoying incremental progress.
6. The Resilience to Push Through the Harder Seasons of Life
Challenges will arise in your life. It’s not a matter of if, but when. If you’ve staked your happiness on comfort and convenience, you may find these difficulties to be nearly unbearable. However, those who intentionally expose themselves to hard things for the sake of growth or to more fully appreciate their leisure will have the skill needed to ride out the tough times and come out stronger.
7. The Confidence That Arises From Intentionally Doing Hard Things
A good life often means holding many different aims in tension with one another, and not allowing yourself to get carried away with anything that only feels good in the moment. Ease is one such temptation that is prone to overindulgence.
The path of ease will leave you one-sided if you are unaware and don’t balance it out with healthy stress and meaningful challenges to keep that balance alive. I hope that you can realize this before the grip of comfort becomes too strong to throw off.