Easier is Difficult
How many times we have floundered on an exam because we thought it would be a piece of cake or the time we waited till the eleventh hour to complete a task because we assumed it would require no special effort, but in the end did a shoddy job! Undoubtedly the easier it gets the more difficult it becomes to achieve the required result.
The dichotomy seems to be borne out of the reduced focus an easy task brings about. The lack of pressure results in a lack of concentrated effort giving rise to a cheap imitation of the actual result one is capable of producing.
Most of us are ignorant of the slack in our attitude in the absence of a deadline – so lets say a researcher’s job would be all the more difficult compared to maybe a salesperson because the aggression for results in case of a sales person is generated through defined deadlines while for a researcher this might be missing or too distant to give rise to the energy to exert extra.
In the absence of difficulty it becomes imperative to impose self-discipline so that the desired objective is achieved in the required quality.
This self-discipline is brought about with a deliberate focus on the goal and the steps to achieve it. For example, there is an exercise technique called ‘Pilates’ which to a layman would appear to be an easier version of yoga – performing the basic yoga poses with ease and control. But the spirit of the technique lies in concentrating at the body part being worked and contracting and releasing the core muscles with exhale and inhale of forced breath. When the physical movement combines with the forced core contraction, it produces extraordinary results. But this benefit is derived only by an individual who understands and focuses on the right breathing and not by one who moves simply through the poses sans the correct form of breathing. Unfortunately, the easier the poses get the more difficult it becomes to keep focus on required breathing, but the answer still lies in the conscious effort to not let yourself fall in the trap of comfort and ease.
I recently read an interview of a mountain climber that sums it all up. When the interviewer asked him what was more difficult going uphill or coming downhill he answered downhill because when going uphill you are giving your best shot, exerting whole hearted effort but coming downhill is when you stop doing that and that is when you encounter most slips and falls.
Thus, when things are ‘downhill’ is when we need to gear up the most so that in the end we are not surprised by the real ‘difficult’ hiding in the guise of ‘easy’.
How many times we have floundered on an exam because we thought it would be a piece of cake or the time we waited till the eleventh hour to complete a task because we assumed it would require no special effort, but in the end did a shoddy job! Undoubtedly the easier it gets the more difficult it becomes to achieve the required result.
The dichotomy seems to be borne out of the reduced focus an easy task brings about. The lack of pressure results in a lack of concentrated effort giving rise to a cheap imitation of the actual result one is capable of producing.
Most of us are ignorant of the slack in our attitude in the absence of a deadline – so lets say a researcher’s job would be all the more difficult compared to maybe a salesperson because the aggression for results in case of a sales person is generated through defined deadlines while for a researcher this might be missing or too distant to give rise to the energy to exert extra.
In the absence of difficulty it becomes imperative to impose self-discipline so that the desired objective is achieved in the required quality.
This self-discipline is brought about with a deliberate focus on the goal and the steps to achieve it. For example, there is an exercise technique called ‘Pilates’ which to a layman would appear to be an easier version of yoga – performing the basic yoga poses with ease and control. But the spirit of the technique lies in concentrating at the body part being worked and contracting and releasing the core muscles with exhale and inhale of forced breath. When the physical movement combines with the forced core contraction, it produces extraordinary results. But this benefit is derived only by an individual who understands and focuses on the right breathing and not by one who moves simply through the poses sans the correct form of breathing. Unfortunately, the easier the poses get the more difficult it becomes to keep focus on required breathing, but the answer still lies in the conscious effort to not let yourself fall in the trap of comfort and ease.
I recently read an interview of a mountain climber that sums it all up. When the interviewer asked him what was more difficult going uphill or coming downhill he answered downhill because when going uphill you are giving your best shot, exerting whole hearted effort but coming downhill is when you stop doing that and that is when you encounter most slips and falls.
Thus, when things are ‘downhill’ is when we need to gear up the most so that in the end we are not surprised by the real ‘difficult’ hiding in the guise of ‘easy’.
posted by Garima at 2:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home