Easier vs Better.

In today’s capitalist and advertising environment, products and “life hacks” designed to make our lives easier have become a major component of our lifestyle, and even our culture. One would think that making our lives easier is a good thing, but it is not always good.

The end goal of our efforts should be to make our lives BETTER, not easier. Finding the balance between easier and better is not always…..well… “easy”, but it is critical.

Exercising regularly is probably not going to make your life easier. Its time consuming, difficult, and often inconvenient, but it will make your life better. The long-term benefits of exercise have been well documented.

Inversely, fast food is convenient, often delicious, and inexpensive, but in the long term has terrible consequences to our health. Its easy but won’t make your life better.

I saw something the other day that made me chuckle. A social media post I read broke humanity into two categories: “Leave-ers” and “Put-ers”. It was a humorous post, but it also made a bunch of sense!

Leave-ers, when done with something, will leave it where it is.

Put-ers, when done, will put it back where it belongs.

When you’re done using an object, leaving it where it is will definitely make your life easier, but it will clutter up your space, and will likely make finding it again later more difficult. Most “leave-ers” will argue “I was going to put it away later” but in my observations I have found that it doesn’t happen as often or quickly as it should.

Putting it away (in its proper place!!) is a far better tactic. It rarely takes as long as people think it will, it makes finding the object again easier, and it makes your surroundings a much tidier.

Putting it down makes your life easier.
Putting it away makes your life better!!

I have a previous blog post “Is Life Supposed to Suck?” where I talk about life’s challenges and discuss whether a life without challenges is better than a life with challenges. Spoiler Alert: A life without challenges is easier, and a life with challenges, approached with the proper attitude, is better! An easy life is a stagnant life. Challenges promote growth, and a life with growth is a better life!

Of course, “easier vs better” leaves lots of room for interpretation, and that is the problem. An action that is better for one person will not always be better for another. There will also be many situations where we can’t choose “better”, but the idea is to chose “better” over “easier” as often as possible.

Ultimately that is the purpose of life: to make our own lives (and the lives of those around us) better.

Not easier…… better!!