Take the Easy Way Out, Don’t Listen to Others

It is not a bad thing to take the easy way out. I don’t mean flat out give up or do unethical things. What I mean is when you find an easier way to get to the same ending, go for the easy route. There’s no point in doing additional work just to have that extra bit of pride. Pride is the enemy of success

Too many people think putting in more effort is good. Overworking is a badge of pride these days. That’s not true. There’s a point when you put too much care into something. When you invest too much resources into accomplishing the exact same goal than if you just took the easy way out.

Before, I used to put in effort to make sure that everything was up to perfection. That my work product is pristine and unquestionably clean. Not only did I double check my work product, I triple, and sometimes quadruple checked. It gave me comfort. Unknown to me, that is my biggest weakness.

That is such an inefficient way to work. 80% is good enough. Perfection takes up a lot of resources in terms of time, effort, and attention. There’s a point where you give up too much for what you get in return. Perfection is one of those avenues. Therefore, take the easy way out.

Look for ways to get to that 80% quality instead of striving for the 100%. Learn to let go of caring too much. I don’t double check my work product anymore. It takes up way too much of my mental power to double check and make sure that all the holes are patched. There are better ways to invest my limited resources elsewhere.

What Does Take the Easy Way Out Mean?

Take the easy way out means that you are choosing to deal with a hard problem or situation that takes up the least amount of effort. Notice that it does that mean that you take action that has the worst results. It has to do with the effort you put in, not the results that comes out.

That’s what people have a hard time understanding. The easy way out has nothing to do with how you finish the race. It has to do with how you approach the race. So when people think that it’s bad, they think that it means they’re looking for a suboptimal solution.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. That’s the biggest misconception. There are many articles out there shaming people who look for shortcuts. Shortcuts are not bad. If both ways get you to the same destination, there’s nothing bad about it.

This doesn’t mean that you should take unethical approaches. Unethical approaches are bad and you shouldn’t do it. However, that has nothing to do with the saying. It has to do with efficiency purposes. Learn to maximize efficiency and figure out ways on how to get the most with the least.

Otherwise, you’re going to invest so much of your time and effort just because it’s harder. That’s a terrible reason to take the harder way out for. When you overwork, you get more things done by the end of it. However, you get less things done per hour that you worked versus someone who doesn’t overwork.

There’s no reason to put in all that additional effort only to end up at a worse spot than someone who took it easy. The hustle work culture isn’t that kind to most people. People who follow it show signs of burnout.

Why Take the Easy Way Out?

One way to take the easy way out is to DESTROY that social share button and post to your favorite social media! Your friends might be struggling with putting in too much effort. Society has a toxic hustle culture these days. Lift some of the pressure off your friends’ shoulders. You may just improve their health by sharing this article.

Slow and steady wins the race. By trying to get there too quickly, you’re going to give up halfway. People aren’t designed to run 100 miles per hour every day.

1) You End Up at the Same Place Anyway

The single most biggest reason you should take the easy way out is that you end up at the same place anyway. The harder path in achieving financial independence would be to make more money. It’s difficult to figure out additional revenue generating sources to add your wallet every month.

The easier path is to just save the equivalent of the additional money you would have made anyway. All you have to do is skip eating out that one time. That’s an additional $15 that stays in your pocket. Instead of looking for ways to make an additional $20 or so to keep that same $15, you can just practice delayed gratification and skip it altogether.

Which would you rather do? In the end, you’re going to end up at the same place anyway. Either way, you found a way to keep that $15 in your pocket. However, one way is harder than the other and takes more effort. There’s no reason to put in all that extra work if it won’t help you move forward quicker.

2) The Hard Way Doesn’t Mean Better Way

Take the easy way out because more effort does not mean more results. More input doesn’t always equate to more output. Whether you work 50 hours a week or 40 hours a week, you get paid the same if you’re on salary. Your bosses don’t really notice the additional 10 hours a week you put in.

They’re too busy caring about their own careers, they don’t really care about the additional effort. As long as you get your work done, your bosses are happy. Therefore, there’s no reason to spend that additional 10 hours a week. It’s inefficient to spend more time in the office to go for perfection when it’s not even appreciated.

Don’t give more effort for people who’s not even going to notice or care about that additional effort. It’s wasteful. Instead, spend that additional 10 hours a week for yourself. Enjoy the sunset and go outside and see the world. You deserve it after putting in hard hours working.

3) You Don’t Need Pride

These days, people use overworking as badge of pride. Companies love giving badges of pride to overworked employees. Why? It doesn’t cost them anything. If all they have to give is recognition and words of encouragement, they’ll do it in a heartbeat. In exchange for employees working their tails off to make the company rich?

The bosses love that. So they recognize those people who put in above and beyond hours. Then they try to shame people who take the easy way out so that behavior is avoided. They’re using your pride and ego against you. Pride is the enemy of success.

It can easily be used against you. Don’t be your own worst enemy. You don’t need the ego boost that comes with others telling you how good you are. All you need is that you know how good you are. Not what everyone else says or thinks about you.

4) Your Health Improves

My neck muscles ache every day that I wake up. No matter how much I tend to it, it hurts. I tried heating it up, putting cold packs on it, and massaging it daily. Nothing seems to do the trick. It has to do with how much work I put in. The day to day life makes my muscles tense up. It’s not a good feeling.

When you take the easy way out, it improves your health. You don’t stress out about the little things anymore and you enjoy life more. Your muscles don’t ache because life isn’t as stressful as someone else who cares too much for their own sake.

Your body is your greatest asset that you have. Take care of it otherwise one day you’ll regret it. You’ll think about how much effort you gave to someone else who didn’t really care about you.

5) Things Aren’t As Complicated as It Seems

You only think that things are complicated so you end up putting in more effort than necessary. When you want to lose weight, you don’t need to go to the gym 4 times a day. All you need to do is eat less than the daily calories you burn. That’s all you have to do.

There’s no reason to go for the most complicated route. Sometimes the simple way is the best way. We have a HUGE complexity bias in our society. When we think something is too easy, we start to think something is wrong. That’s not right. Simple and easy does not mean bad.

Hard and complex does not mean good. You may just be putting in more effort than necessary.

When You Should Take the Easy Way Out

Now that you know why you should take the easy way out below are when you should take the easy way out.

1) Building Wealth

There’s no need to create the next Tesla. You can take the traditional route to build wealth. Which is to save as much money as you can and invest it. It’s a tried and proven way to build wealth over a long period of time and it will continue to be.

Sure, you can create the next revolutionary product that changes the world. Or invest in the next GameStop that makes you filthy rich. However, you don’t need to go through that complicated path. You can do the boring and easy thing like saving and investing your money in stocks or real estate.

There’s a reason why it’s working for so many people and it will continue to work for the majority of people in the future. Take the easy way out. I have no clue how to create the next company that changes the world. However, I do know how to save money and invest the difference in a broad market based index fund. It’s very easy.

2) Take the Easy Way Out Especially With Work

Don’t work as hard as you can at your job. Your motivation and incentive is to get paid the most while working the least. The company’s incentive is to get you to work the most while paying the least. It’s a conflict of interest. Companies put out misinformation out there about how hard you have to work to achieve the American Dream.

That’s patently false. Instead of trying to figure out a way to provide the most value to the company, figure out a way to take the most value without getting let go. It’s a fine line and it actually takes a lot of work and planning to get there. Once you figure out that balance, life becomes easier.

Leave work at 4pm if you don’t have anything else to do and are done for the day. Your bosses can’t tell you anything, you’re already done with work. Don’t care too much for someone who won’t hesitate to let you go in a second.

3) Making More Money

Take the easy way out in making more money. Don’t work on a project that pays by the hour. Work on a project that pays by the result. When I was in college, I worked 2 jobs throughout it. It paid somewhere between $8.25 – $15 an hour. Looking back at it now, that was ridiculous.

My time was better spent looking for ways to generate money without putting in so much effort. Hourly pay is the worst deal you can get into. If you have to get into it temporarily to pay the bills, go for it. Over time, you should be less dependent on such things.

Instead of looking to work harder, work smarter and research what things you can do to work as little as possible while getting paid a lot. There’s plenty of projects like this out there. All you have to do is go out and find it.

4) Losing Weight

There’s no point in working hard at losing weight 24/7. All you have to do is eat less than how many calories you burn. You don’t need to go to the gym. It’s helpful but that’s not what’s going to cross you to the finish line. What’s going to cross you over the finish line is what you eat.

Take the easy way out. Don’t think that you have to spend five hours a day at the gym to meet your weight goal. Since March 2020, I lost 15 pounds. I haven’t stepped foot into a single gym since the pandemic hit. All I focused on was my diet and how much calories I was inputting.

it’s not that complicated to stay at a healthy weight. Therefore, there’s no need to make it complicated. Eat less than how many calories you’re burning and you’re good to go. Don’t get sucked into the Nike and Under Armour commercials who are breaking their backs to work out. It’s too much work for little gain.

It’s Not Bad to Take the Easy Way Out

No matter what others are telling you, it’s completely fine to take the easy way out. Taking the easy way out is never bad. People love to shame these kinds of people but the joke’s on them. We love reading stories about people who put in an inhuman number of hours at perfecting their craft.

We start to feel that those people deserve those successes. Then when we read about people who coasted through life without a care in the world, we resent them. People call them “lucky”. It’s not luck, it’s being smart. These people figured out how to be efficient and smart with their time and resources.

Don’t try too hard. You don’t want your blood pressure to shoot up to the sky. What you want is to stay at a relatively good baseline. Look for situations in which your input is 1 but your output is 10. Very rarely will this situation happen because you took the harder way. Oftentimes, it will happen because you took the easy way out.

You found out how to make the work simpler and faster. You figured out how to automate the process so that you don’t do any work but someone else does. Instead of working hard for money, why not make your money work hard for you? It’s the best employee you’ll ever have because it never complains.

Don’t let others brainwash you into thinking it’s bad to take the easy way out. It’s quite amazing. I put in less effort in my work than before. It’s helped my mental sanity and allowed me to work on other projects that I’m more passionate about. I still get paid the same at the end of the day, anyway.