Why Are The Easiest Things The Hardest To Do?

After reading the book Atomic Habits I sat down and wrote a list of habits I want to introduce in to my life using the techniques it describes. However when I went through my list of habits I came to the realisation that none of these habits were difficult. But for some reason I just hadn't started doing them already.

One of the habits was to exercise daily. Pretty standard habit and one that most of us would feel we need to do. So I use an app to create a running program which tells me a different run to do 5 days a week and then to rest the other two days. The runs are split into 3 categories. Speed, Long distance and Recovery runs.

The Speed runs should be the hardest to do, technically speaking, however these runs I tend to do without fail and feel like I have really achieved something afterwards.

The Recovery runs should be easy runs that you kind of just take it slow and allow your body to recover whilst gently running. I came to the realisation today that I find these runs the hardest.

So I asked myself the question why are the easiest things the hardest to do? Another example is that I want to start meditating daily. Everything you read about meditation tells you how great it is and how beneficial it is.

I keep asking myself: How hard can it be? It is just sitting there doing nothing but focusing on your breathing right? So why do I find it so hard to do?

My Answer

The reason I find the easy things hard to do is because they are easy. Because they provide no challenge to me and there are no obstacles.

What motivates me more than anything is people or something telling me I can't do something. That is like a red rag to a bull for me.

I get a kick out of proving people wrong and showing myself that I can do something if I put my mind to it.

The only reason I am able to run consistently is because my app has a schedule and has targets for me to hit and an end goal to achieve. It is the challenge it gives me that makes me keep doing it.

So What Now?

I now know why I find the easy things hard, so what can I now do about it? Well I am going to take this realisation forward in to anything I want to get done.

As I said I want to start meditating, so I am going to start setting myself challenges. I'll set myself targets and then set an end goal. Keeping track of those targets and my achievements along the way will be key in ensuring I stick to it and keep improving.

You can apply this to your personal development. You will have things you want to improve on and they will often be easy things you could do about it. However you tend not to do them. The key is to find what motivates you and then apply it to the task in hand.

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Thanks for reading,

Gav