We live in a world where every day, someone is trying to make things easier for us.
You’re hungry? Someone will bring food to your door. What cuisine would you like today? Uber Eats has you covered. Need a new vacuum cleaner? No problem. Choose from these top-rated models, and it can be delivered tomorrow if you order within the next hour. Welcome to Amazon! Need to pay your utility bills? Now you can do it on your phone with our app.
Perhaps this drive to make life more convenient is profit-driven. Whatever the reason, it’s undeniable that life today is far more convenient and requires less effort than 150 years ago, when I may have had to saddle my horse and ride two hours to town just to buy sugar.
This convenience is a double-edged sword. It has made our external lives easier, but it has also trained our subconscious to expect convenience, ease, and speed. As I mentioned earlier, I can accomplish many tasks with minimal effort. Months and years of consistent daily experiences like this have molded our subconscious to expect the same convenience, ease, and speed in every aspect of our lives.
If we are perpetually immersed in convenience, ease, and speed, why wouldn’t we start to unrealistically expect that from everything we are involved in? We have trained our subconscious to expect this in many areas of life, but we have failed to inform it not to expect it in other areas—where this expectation is not only unrealistic but often leads to disappointment.
We expect people to learn things quickly, whether in a personal or professional setting. We expect to change and sustain that change in a short period of time or to manifest our goals faster.
Fewer and fewer people want to do the work. I can’t play tennis at the US Open if I don’t train for it. I can’t become a great pianist and perform at the highest level if I don’t practice day in and day out for years. Want a profound and meaningful relationship with your child? That requires years of hard work. Would you like to be good at controlling where your awareness goes in your mind? That’s going to take considerable effort over time.
Many people fail to realize that when it comes to our inner life, we must commit to doing the work. There are no hacks, and there are no shortcuts. Don’t expect a “plant medicine” to do it for you, or the universe to manifest things when the time is right. Do the work!
My guru once said to me, “I can share with you the tools. I can share with you the goal and the path to that goal. I can teach you how to use the tools—but the work, you have to do."
In that same conversation, he said, "I don’t hand things out; you’ve got to work for it."
I replied, "I’ll work for it. I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll give my life to it." And I did. And I continue to do so.
Learn to wisely separate humans and nature from technology. It’s okay to expect convenience, ease, and speed with technology. But with humans and nature (yourself included), take a different perspective. Give time. Strive to understand where each is in their evolution. You don’t have to meet them where they are, but you can acknowledge where they are and let that bring understanding. Be patient. Be compassionate. Give time.
