Inconvenience: Just What I Need
Sometimes inconvenience is a pain in the butt and sometimes, it’s exactly what we need. Sometimes the thing that frustrates us, scares us and wrenches us out of our comfortable, safe, familiar routine is the very thing that causes us to grow, learn, adapt and gain new insight. To explore new possibilities. To develop valuable new skills. To become a new-and-improved version of us. How ironic that our ever-increasing hunger for all-things-convenient might well be the thing that brings our development to a grinding halt. The thing that puts a lid on our potential. The thing that keeps us trapped in mediocrity. And the thing that stops us from facing and overcoming our fears. Not so long ago, life was inconvenient.
Very.
Nonetheless, people survived.
Convenience Sells
If there’s one thing we new(ish) millennium folk love, it’s convenience. If you don’t believe me then take a peek at the overwhelming supply of convenience-based products and services. Convenience sells. We love easy. We love fast. And we love comfortable. Could you imagine trying to sell something that inconvenienced people? Even if the benefits of that inconvenience were guaranteed? Why do you think the majority of people don’t follow through with their exercise program? It’s inconvenient, that’s why. And why are more and more people opting for surgical weight-loss when diet and exercise can produce better results with far less cost and risk?
You know the answer.
Sometimes I wonder what effect all this efficiency, speed, ease, comfort and convenience will have on us as a society over the long term. How will it affect our development? Our inner strength? Our adaptation skills? Our ability to deal with real world adversity and problems? How can we become amazing, powerful, resilient beings when our default setting is locked on easy?
Personally, I think convenience is overrated.
