The Easy Answer

How do you get a six-pack in 6 weeks?  How do you lose a stone in a week?  How do you turn $10 into $10,000?  How do you become a millionaire?  How do you win the lottery?

There are many questions we ask in life hoping to find a simple answer, or something that looks easy enough for us to do.  These questions are usually related to things that are inherently hard to achieve, or involve no skill whatsoever and come down to luck alone.  When we search out answers to these questions, we hope to find an easy answer but we often find people who try to sell us their solutions to the problem.  In most of these cases the solutions we have to buy into are difficult.  If you want to get a six-pack in 6 weeks for example you end up with people trying to sell you things like P90X and other workout routines that are best described as insane.  If you bite, and actually buy these solutions you quickly learn they are very difficult.

The reality in life is something that should be self evident, but we often ignore it.  That reality is simple, if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it.  When you say this to people who are adamant an easy solution must exist they will make a never ending list of excuses why you have to be wrong.  Most of the arguments they have centre around the disbelief that the people who achieved these goals before them actually put the work into achieving those goals.  They argue that this celebrity or that celebrity wouldn't do an insane workout for 6 weeks to get into that kind of shape.  My argument against that is rather simple, they get paid enough for their endeavours that they feel it's worth it in the end, and those that don't think it is worth it, don't put that work in.

Whenever it comes to anything in regards to physical fitness, the first response that people seem to give is that it's all surgery.  You can't get six-pack abs with surgery, the muscle has to be there.  Yes, you could have all the fat sucked out, but if you're not physically fit enough it won't make a difference.  Whenever it comes to diet there too there is a belief that there must be a magic pill you can take or some super food you can eat that will give you all the energy you need with zero calories and will leave you feeling full with no appetite to eat more.  When you start to think about how ludicrous that actually is you begin to see how the promise of an outcome outweighs the scepticism and the reasoning that would tell you it won't work.

Whilst body image is a driving factor for many, there are plenty of people who are happy just the way they are.  It is for this reason I think money drives us more than image, that and the belief that "if you have enough money, anything can be fixed" with regards to body image.  That's patently untrue, but it's not worth dwelling on right now.  What is worth dwelling on however is that the same thought process governs the pursuit of wealth.  People believe they can get rich quick, that investments claiming ridiculous returns are legitimate, or that they can become a millionaire if they just save their money - unless you're earning a very high salary you will never become a millionaire by saving money in the bank.  Making money is like getting that perfect body, it take a lot of work, a lot of time and energy, and like body image for many people it will never be enough no matter how much progress they make they will still want more and think they can do better.

In life I can be considered a cynic, despite having a mind that explores so many things in such depth, and an imagination and creativity that runs away from me at times, I am still grounded by some beliefs that have stayed with me throughout my life.  One such belief is applicable here - if it seems too good to be true, it usually is.  That's the truth about easy answers to difficult questions, if it really was that easy, everyone would be doing it.