You and I have believed a lie.

That this would be easy.

This = life.
Single life.
Marriage.
Divorce.
Kids.
Work.
Caring for aging parents.
Finding purpose.
All of it.

Somewhere along the way, we picked up the idea that if something is right, it should be easy. We ran with that lie and turned it into a barometer—one we now use to judge our pursuits.

Where did we learn that?I t’s not in nature.

Spend fifteen minutes in the woods and you’ll see it clearly: everything is trying to live. Everything is struggling. Everything is trying to eat everything else.

For LinkedIn’s sake, I won’t get into where I believe this lie actually came from. But I will say this: the least happy people I know are under the constant yoke of chasing an easy life.

Here’s the picture that keeps coming back to me, especially coming out of the holidays: building a fire.

The holidays are perfect for sitting next to a fire and thinking about life. Many homes now come with gas fireplaces—fake logs, instant flame, zero effort. I had one for years.

I almost never used it.

Why? Because it wasn’t satisfying. It was easy—literally a flip of a switch—and yet I never used it.

Now I have a wood-burning fireplace. I have to saw logs. Split wood. Haul it inside. And fight for the return of my man card every time I try to light the thing.It’s work. It takes preparation.

There’s nothing easy about it. And yet—I burn a fire every chance I get.

If wanting easy, and getting easy, doesn’t satisfy, that should tell us something.

Easy is the wrong barometer. When easy is the goal, difficulty feels like failure.

So when things get hard—as they always do—we quit. Or worse, we become indifferent.

Indifference becomes the compromise.

Neutrality—watching from the sidelines—becomes the easiest posture to take. It’s easier to let someone else do.

That’s why we scroll. Why we flip from video to video of other people living, building, risking.

We eat chips and watch people exercise. (Sports.) Watching other people do has become the new version of easy living. And it’s killing your soul.

Indifference becomes your default because you were taught that ease was the measure of a good life.

So you end up delegated—to the couch, to the feed, to a life of scrolling.

Don’t let indifference win this year.

Cheers to the doers.

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