Cheers for Pain and Frustration!
“Yes! Yes! That right there, Denzel! That right there!”
That is what I shouted at Denzel Washington as he gave his acceptance speech at the 2017 NAACP Image Awards, as if he could hear me.
I was inspired by his words and I was emphatic about sharing his message on the concept of ease.
Why?
Well, I have found that many people are fixated on the idea of choosing what they want and who they want to be based on how easy it will be to achieve.
They want to bypass pain and frustration altogether.
In Denzel's speech, if you really listened to him, he encouraged us to not embrace easy. I suspect he knows first hand how detrimental easy can be if you rely on it.
I will get to what Denzel said that had me practically jumping out of my seat, but first let's talk about the appeal of easy.
The Appeal of Easy
Go to Amazon and search the books released in the last ninety days using the word easy.
For almost any category of books, pages upon pages will return with the word easy in the title.
In fact, at the time of this writing, titles such as Relationships Done Easy, Making Life Easy: A Simple Guide to a Divinely Inspired Life, and The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking returned in the results.
I can tell you, even the best relationships are not easy. You must always work hard, even to sustain a happy and healthy relationship.
So then, what is up with the appeal of easy?
Why You May Want Life to Be Easier
I pondered that question in my own life.
Growing up I recall being frustrated by how much hard work and time I had to put into studying to make good grades. It seemed to me that studies came so much easier for my classmates than it did for me.
My perception was that some students put in very little effort to get the same results. So yes, I wanted the study process to be easy.
Likewise, as a working adult, there are times when it seemed as if getting promoted was easy for some people and darn near impossible for others.
Thinking in these terms, I can see why we are looking for the easy way to get what we want. Easy seems a whole lot better than the pain and frustration you sometimes go through in order to achieve what you want.
But is easy really better?
What Do You Gain from Easy?
Ok, I agree, pain and frustration sucks, but what do you gain from easy?
You get what you want without fuss and possibly faster. Ok. I get that.
But….
How does easy assist you with challenges, the storms of life, or the unexpected?
I do not know about you, but the last I experienced, there was nothing easy about challenges, storms of life or the unexpected.
In fact, I found when I made it out of such situations I was a better, stronger, and more confident person as a result. Easy would not have provided the same outcome.
Therefore, that is what pain and frustration offer that easy never could – growth, strength, and confidence.
That's why…
Defy Easy
Like Denzel, I encourage you to defy easy.
Desire to be challenged.
Yes, it may be painful and you may be frustrated and feel defeated, but I am telling you when you stick it out, that pain and frustration is worth it.
So what did Denzel say to get me all excited?
He validated what I already knew: easy doesn't offer much.
Here is what he said:
If it was easy, there’d be no Kerry Washington. If it were easy, there’d be no Taraji P. Henson or Octavia Spencer. Not only that, there’d be no Viola Davis….there'd be no Denzel Washington.”
Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship. So, keep moving, keep learning, keep growing.
Don't threaten your progress by searching out easy. Embrace the stronger more confident person you become by defying what is easy. Lastly, understand that pain and frustration offer what easy never could.
What do you think? Does pain and frustration offer what easy never could? Share in the post comments.