Jeremy C Kester

There is no easy way out. There’s no shortcut. There’s no single trick that will resolve the issue. There’s no one-step to success. Simply put: we have to put the work in.

One of my favorites in this realm was the ol’ “5-Minute Abs” program from the 80s or 90s (I’m too lazy at the moment to look it up, so bear with me on exactly when it was popular). It followed the same premise that all these other quick-success schemes do, believing that 5 minutes a day was all one needed for their 6-pack abs to show. Of course it was to sell a product, given that they did very little to convey the dieting needed at least to get one closer to that level of fitness. I bought into it. Maybe not that specifically, but right along that vane.

There’s also supplements to the same effect. “Take this simple supplement to radically burn your belly fat!” Or something to that effect. The promise of simple steps to fix our problems is even older than snake oil.

Because we always want the easy way out.

But that doesn’t exist. There’s a cost to everything “easy” and we often avoid considering that. But in doing the easy thing, it tricks us into believing that we are putting in the effort so then we can ignore the problem. We can kick that can down the road for future us to deal with it, if at all.

If it is something we really want though, then the work will need to be done. Plain and simple. Effort has to be applied. If I want that job as a novelist, I have to put in the effort. There’s no shortcut. Writing is work and work must be done. Then once that is complete, I will need to keep writing. And work to get people to even see the book. Then to get someone to read. Then work to improve. To better.

The work must be done. There’s no easy way out of it.