Interesting People Don’t Take the Easiest Path

Most people in life follow whatever path is the easiest and most convenient. They eat fast food. They get easy entertainment from television. They avoid taking the stairs whenever humanly possible. They take the easiest most simple vacations.

This is not the path of the interesting person.

Interesting people want more out of life. They have goals they want to achieve and experiences that they want to experience. They realize that this usually doesn’t involve doing what is easiest, but to them the end result is worth it.

Not taking the easiest path can be difficult especially after a long day of stress and work. It takes time, effort, can be mentally draining and takes time away from activities like watching television or watching cat videos on YouTube.

Is it easy to exercise several times a week? No. It takes time and effort; especially to get the most out of it.

Some people that go to the gym look to go the easy route. They do some light cardio on a machine and then do some of the more simple weight machines. This is better than nothing, but is still choosing an easier path. The more interesting person pushes themselves, tries new exercises and leaves the gym sweating and a little worn.

Lazy people don’t read books. They surf the internet and usually get distracted by nonsense, but rarely make a real and organized effort at expanding their knowledge. Their educations end after high school or college since learning new things takes time and mental effort.

Boring lazy people rarely look to improve their lives financially. Once they have a job, the average person sticks with it and stops thinking of how they can do more. The interesting person is always looking to improve themselves whether by learning new skills, getting a promotion, switching companies, or starting their own business. This certainly isn’t easy, but it is their choice.

Learning languages isn’t easy. It takes time and brainpower, but it makes you more interesting.

Choose the more interesting path.

One of the reasons that cruises are such popular vacation choices is how easy they make it for people. The boat does most of the work. The food, entertainment and most activities are a short walk away from their cabins. I myself typically avoid cruises since I like to experience a country firsthand. I like to eat where the local people eat and I hate their forced deadlines which often get in the way of enjoying the local nightlife. Cruise ships are too easy, sanitary and therefore less interesting.

Now with all of this I am not saying to take a tougher path just for the sake of doing things that are inherently more difficult. Sometimes the easier path can be the more interesting path. Sometimes the easier path is the path less taken. Sometimes people will line up for the tougher path merely because everyone else is doing the same. In this case people assume that the popular path is the easiest one and are not willing to take the mental effort or risk being different to try any other way.

When making decisions in life always ask if you are doing it because it will lead to the greatest level of total life fulfillment, or are you doing it because it is the easiest thing in the short term.

Choosing the tougher path gets easier over time. It is a habit to cultivate with rewards that are well worth it.