In Life: Do you choose what is easy or what is hard but makes you proud of yourself?

PLL

Question is in the title.

At the end of a hard day does going to bed and feeling like you have achieved something and you're proud of who you are important?

Or should you just take the easy route and enjoy life but always feeling you could have been/done more?

Menas

For some of us the hard part of our day comes after we go to bed, not before. How could I answer your question?

shopaholic01

I've always taken the easy way, but have done quite well all the same. Life is for living, not pushing yourself harder than you need to.

I'm incredibly lazy though, a motivated person would disagree with me.

Sunnyisland

It's what I accomplish in life, whether it's hard or easy that most matters to me.

ToddyDoody

What about those on De dole?

Wacker The Attacker

Only hard if it's worth it.

Tail Docker

Confucious say, Some people are considered easy because they always take what is hard.

Sulla Felix

I... don't choose. It's a problem. I'm paralyzed by indecision about 80% of the time.

Fox_In_Socks

Having goals is great, really swell!!!!!!!

Sometimes, when I want to personally develop even more, I look back at all the times I've set a goal...and achieved it!!!!!

I work insanely crazy hours, but I need that to function-it's like I need the adrenaline!!!!!!

--LOS--

I'd say hard definitely. Sometimes people ask about what I study and then say, but, why would you do that? why would you do something so hard? Usually I'm like....why would you not do something just coz it's hard (this sounds all wrong now ofc :P)

Son Of A Vidic

I chose the hard path and really regret it. if I could turn back then clock, I would choose the easy option.

talla10

I chose the hard working path years ago only to see lazy people with better connections get ahead of me.

Now im so lazy i don't even finis

stateofflux

, having a job is not exactly an accomplishment. its a means to an end. i know people that climbed everest, swam the english channel, rescued at least 3 scared cats from trees AND raised 40,000 euro for charity....all while on the dole...:pac:

looking_around

PLL wrote: »

Question is in the title.

At the end of a hard day does going to bed and feeling like you have achieved something and you're proud of who you are important?

Or should you just take the easy route and enjoy life but always feeling you could have been/done more?

but... you're missing one point here.

taking the easy route, doesn't always mean "feeling like you could have done more".

Life is about being happy, that's the only achievement worth having.

You could have 10 degrees and be miserable, because what you really wanted to do was spend your evening out in the park and not in the books.

Pride isn't a feeling I think about.
Sure sometimes I do something and think "well proud of myself now", but I don't do things with the intention of feeling proud.

an example, I go mountain biking with the OH, there's this section that scares the sh!t out of me. Normally I walk it, but recently actually manage to cycle it. I wanted to cycle it, because I knew it'd be fun, (and actually easier than walking. ) I didn't do it to feel good about myself, that was just a secondary benefit.

Jeefff

PLL wrote: »

Question is in the title.

At the end of a hard day does going to bed and feeling like you have achieved something and you're proud of who you are important?

Or should you just take the easy route and enjoy life but always feeling you could have been/done more?

Everything is pointless really, if you think about life, easy? hard? we're still flying through space on a rock to who knows where.. Maybe the whole universe will hit a giant windshield and we'll splatter like bugs..

Seriously though, if there are two options for doing something, then why would the hardest one be a choice? Don't be hard on yourself

Red21

PLL wrote: »

Or should you just take the easy route and enjoy life but always feeling you could have been/done more?

I take the easy route and enjoy life and never have the feeling I could've been/done more, the good life just goes on and on....

This goal setting marlarkey is a load of rubbish, because it's you yourself who sets the goal. They aren't even achievements in the eyes of the world, they're only what you believe to be achievements in the eyes of the world.

If something is hard to do, then it's not worth doing- Homer Simpson

ballyharpat

I generally choose the hard way, but it is the easiest way in the long run, I choose to train hard for racing bicycles, if I didn't train for races, I would probably get bored with cycling and not do it anymore, what happens then is I get depressed because I am not exercising....

I have and still am working my arse to the bone, but I did take a year off tow years ago, and by the end of this year I can cut back to 20 hours a week with the income from my investments, so I chose the hard way so that I could live the easy life...

PLL

PLL wrote: »

At the end of a hard day does going to bed and feeling like you have achieved something and you're proud of who you are important?

I just wrote this on another part of the forum and it seems to apply here, so sorry for the cross post. I think I was the "Take it easy" type in college but to the extreme. I was a lay about waster.

I think what I changed most in my new life outlook after college was how I configured and set my goals. My orientation shifted to be massively different to most people around me.

Rather than focus on "standard" goals (good job, relationship, kids) or comparing my success against others (am I earning as much as my brother, are my kids as happy and successful as my mates, is my partner as hot as everyone elses) I instead set a new goal set for myself.

Basically my focus shifted to ensuring I bettered myself in some small way each and every day.

When I go to bed on any given day it is after having in some way improved myself on the person I was the day before. Physically, mentally, educationally, spiritually, emotionally, financially, skill set, socially. SOMETHING. It did not matter how small or how many things improved - there simply had to be at least one.

And incrementally over time I ended up being in exactly the place I wanted to be in just about every way - and I strive to continue incrementally pushing forwards.

I found this made me happier than anyone else around be because when you focus your goals on the standards of others there is ALWAYS someone "better" than you or goals you simply can not attain. I could never be happy judging myself against the standards of others.

And along the route I simply ended up in a complex (and how) and fulfilling relationship. It was never a target or goal - just something I allowed to happen along the way without really concerning myself with it.

So I guess to answer your question I do try to take the "hard" and fulfilling route but not SO hard - in that it is slow and incremental over every single day.

Maphisto

Deleted User wrote: »

Basically my focus shifted to ensuring I bettered myself in some small way each and every day.

When I go to bed on any given day it is after having in some way improved myself on the person I was the day before. Physically, mentally, educationally, spiritually, emotionally, financially, skill set, socially. SOMETHING. It did not matter how small or how many things improved - there simply had to be at least one.

Fair enough - but aren't those things always a bit self fulfilling, or could be satisfied by the most glib or mundanee things?

I'm better off financially - another days pay earnt
I'm better off educationally - I listened to the news
Better off spriritually - went to mass
emotionally - hugged the kids

renegademaster

sometimes yes, sometimes no, depends but I see the merits with both

Maphisto

Maphisto wrote: »

Fair enough - but aren't those things always a bit self fulfilling, or could be satisfied by the most glib or mundanee things?

I'm better off financially - another days pay earnt
I'm better off educationally - I listened to the news
Better off spriritually - went to mass
emotionally - hugged the kids

Sure but I try to aim a little higher than that. I just did not go into the depths of specifics as the post was already getting long enough.

I do for example try to aim for things that are not a consistent presensce anyway. So for example "Another days pay earned" would not qualify because that is a constant. However if I somehow increased that pay - invested it with a newer bigger return - found some way to save money (such as how I grow all my own veg and have hens to produce eggs and so forth) - and so on.

The same is true of the news. I view that as a constant. Whereas reading a new scientific paper on a topic of interest - or another chapter on a book on history - and so forth would not be.

The same is true of your kids example in fact. The only one that I would find wrong in the list is the "mass" one as I would see mass attendence as a spiritual back step - not a progression.

conorhal

PLL wrote: »

Question is in the title.

At the end of a hard day does going to bed and feeling like you have achieved something and you're proud of who you are important?

Or should you just take the easy route and enjoy life but always feeling you could have been/done more?

I like a particular quote by Louis Mackey:

What are these barriers that keep people from reaching anywhere near their real potential?
The answer to that can be found in another question and that's this: Which is the most universal human characteristic: fear, or laziness?