There's a short saying that I love:

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

The idea is simple: The foundation of strength is hardship, struggle, and challenge—not ease.

In other words, you have two paths to choose between in life:

1. Easy now—hard later.
2. Hard now—easy later.

Unfortunately, we live in an ease-obsessed world. A world where the siren song of shortcuts, hacks, speed, and pleasure constantly conspires against you.

Every single day, you have a choice:

• To give in, to follow its alluring tune, or
• To resist, to choose the long way

Today, and all days, I want to make the case that this choice is no choice at all.

To build the life you want, to earn the things you want, your resistance is the cost of entry.

The Most Important Resistance in Life

Fact: We live in an era that celebrates ease.

Every shortcut, every trick, every hack gets shared at the speed of light.

Business and money gurus tell you it's easy to make $10 million trading or flipping homes (and sell you the $299 course that will get you there). Dating apps let you avoid your fear of rejection if you approach someone in real life. Fancy diet plans claim to let you eat the foods you love and still get in shape. Ab zapping belts say you can get six-pack abs while sitting on the couch in just eight minutes per day.

Everything you're being sold is framed as lower-friction and higher efficiency.

Everything is about taking the hard and making it easy. That you can attain the pleasures in life without the pain and struggle that prior generations had to endure to get them. That you can have it all, without the struggle.

But it's time for a harsh truth:

The things that matter in life are hard to build.

• It's hard to build a powerful, purpose-imbued career.
• It's hard to build deep, meaningful relationships.
• It's hard to build a healthy, fit body.
• It's hard to build a calm, present mind.
• It's hard to build a reputation worthy of respect.

They aren't supposed to be easy. If they were, everyone would have them.

Prioritizing speed is dangerous: It leads you into bad, short-term decisions. It encourages "get rich quick" thinking that lands a lot of people in trouble.

It's a path to a death by a thousand shortcuts...

Remember: Nothing worth having in life should be easy.

Delayed gratification—doing hard things now with the anticipation of a benefit later—is the source of real joy and fulfillment.

And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the real happiness is found in the anticipation.

It’s the quest. It’s the hunt. It’s the process. It's the journey. It's the moment right before you achieve it.

It's not in the having, but in the becoming.

Miles To Go Before You Sleep

This is an excerpt from one of my favorite poems:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

The life you want is not something that can be built overnight—and it certainly won't be built through shortcuts, tricks, or hacks.

The short way is the wrong way.

The long way is the right way.

So, do hard things, because the best that life has to offer is only built through hours, days, weeks, months, and years of joyful struggle:

• Waking up early
• Focusing deeply on the problems that matter
• Having difficult conversations
• Being present with those you love
• Moving your body
• Eating what fuels you
• Creating space to sit in the silence

Fall in love with the long way—find your joy in the hunt—and you'll win the greatest prizes in life.

And enjoy the ride, because you have miles to go before you sleep...

P.S. I explore this topic of earned substance in depth—and provide proven, science-backed systems to build the "things that matter"—in my upcoming book. You can preorder your copy on ​Amazon​ or ​anywhere books are sold​!