The path of laziness: Addicted to the easy life
Channel: Quest for a Meaningful Life
Date: 2019-10-17

So this afternoon I picked up a certain sense of dissatisfaction. 
I started to feel frustrated that I wasn't getting what I wanted. 
Things aren't moving fast enough. 
I started to feel like a lot of my efforts are in vain, that time is passing by too quickly with nothing to show. 
And I had to sort of pull myself together, take some deep breaths, look out the window, say a quiet prayer, calm my mind, and then I had the clarity to realize that I was once again looking for an easy way. 
And it seems so normal that we all want an easy way. 
We all want what we want when we want it, without having to work too hard for it. 
I mean, you say it like that and, you know, it does sound a little bit silly, but at the same time, it's completely normal. 
That is what we are trained- we train ourselves into wanting an easy life. 
The way that we live in a world of convenience, a world where we want to get things done very easily. 
So we're simply- most of us, and I can at least speak for myself, are not habituated to hard, patient, long struggle for eventual benefits. 
We want things now. 
Instant gratification. 
Perhaps we can assign some blame to the world of advertising, popular culture, media, that presents us this consumer vision where you're being catered to in the most simple and the lowest way, that is simply almost like animals that are being triggered by advertising, and we're trained to expect to get things quickly and conveniently. 
And many of us know some of the perils of going too far down that path of laziness, complacency, expecting easy road, leads into mediocrity, dissatisfaction, regret. 
And then when we start to make changes, start to move down a path of self-development, you certainly can find that it is a LOT slower than this consumer package of pre-made convenience and ease that it seems to be competing against. 
We can get some of those quick joys. 
You know, there are there are joy along the way, of course. 
Making early wins, making gains, feeling improvement. 
When that feeling of improvement hits, it is so satisfying to get that feeling like we really are making steps in a good direction. 
But that feeling is not all the time and of course, all these feelings fade. 
So if I look at my place in life now compared to a couple years ago, if I were who I was back then and suddenly could become what I am now through some instant transformation, I would be elated that, wow, my discipline, my strength, my organization, my power has greatly increased. 
My clarity of mind, my sense of purpose, all these things have improved. 
But it's still such a small step along the way. 
And after we adjust initially to the pleasant feeling of improvement, then however we improve becomes the new normal, and it's no longer stimulating. 
And that's something that the hard road of self-improvement cannot compete with the world of easy convenience and pleasure and gratification in offering the quick stimulation. 
Essentially it's the world of drugs, and the world of mental drugs and the drugs of entertainment, and the drugs of easy living, the drugs of convenience and consumer-packaged life. 
The hard road is not as fun. 
You know, the fun really sneaks up on you. 
The fun is not something that is there all the time. 
So what I've realized today is how much I am addicted to this easy life, and how much it is built in to my personal training, even as I, on some level, I reject it, on some level, I have overcome it, and yet it is still built in through my deep training to just have this feeling like I deserve an easy way, I deserve an easy path through, I deserve what I want now. 
And so it's yet another reminder there's a long way to go. 
So continue to take care of the fundamentals, get the rest and recharge and refuel that I need, and continue on the road.