On Chaos and Difficulty
Chaos and Difficulty
Chaos and difficulty are part and parcel of life. We face difficulties in all areas – spiritually, mentally, financially, etc. However, many of us have become skilled at avoiding chaos rather than embracing the chaos. When we see a problem, rather than find ways to solve the problem, we would instead look for a way to avoid or ignore the problem if we can.
We are constantly optimizing for ease. It is in our nature to seek those things that are the easiest to do with the hope that it produces the most significant outcomes. Although it is not impossible to achieve great success from doing easy things, it is scarce.
Using a basic example, people with the easiest of jobs get paid less while those with more complex jobs get paid more. (By easy jobs, I fundamentally mean jobs with lesser responsibilities, not insignificant responsibilities.)
Few people are willing to embrace the chaos and difficulty, while many are looking for ways to avoid it. This means if there are two options – easy and difficult – placed before a sample audience to pick from, about 90% will go for the easier. In contrast, the remaining 10% will choose the difficult one.
The mistake many of us make is that we do not consider the possible outcome of each option. We instead take a short-sighted view of the option, mainly considering ease or speed of implementation as the basis for our judgment.
If, for instance, the sample audience gets to learn that the difficult option will bring about $10 million while the easy one will bring about $100, a lot of them will give the difficult option a chance.
Unfortunately, when we make decisions in our daily lives, there is no map or fortune teller to predict the outcome of many of our choices. As a result, we cannot guarantee the outcome of anything.
We can lose our benefactor tomorrow.
We can go bankrupt the next minute.
We can get sacked from work the next day.
We do not know which option is best from the onset; as a result, many make their choices based on ease. However, the hack is to follow the chaos.
The chaos is the map.
The chaos is the fortune teller.
Most often than not, where there is chaos, there is a high reward. The person brave enough to navigate through chaos and difficulty is mostly going to be the most successful.
If you are pretty honest with yourself, think back to times you had your best moments; what can you associate with it? My best guess is chaos and difficulty.
That time you got cheered, it was because you did something pretty difficult and triumphed or when you were the happiest, it was because you did something you had thought you could not do.
Chaos and difficulty are what shape us. They test our characters; they forge us. They give meaning to our lives. But, unfortunately, by trying to avoid difficult things, we tend to set ourselves up for mediocrity.
Nothing good comes easy. If you want to be the best at a thing, you must be ready to confront the chaos as it is where the answers are found. Anything with the greatest upside, the least downside, and the greatest risk is what you want to get yourself involved in.
to be continued…