In all my years running black belt and higher degree test, I’ve never had anybody say to me they regret participating in a really hard test.
Heck, candidates are much quicker to complain about a test being easy than they ever are to complain about a test being hard.
In fact, hard tests usually lead to bragging more than any kind of complaint.
And I think this illustrates something about all of us. That surface level, sure, we want to follow the path of least resistance. And do what’s easy. And complain about all that’s hard with our life.
…But that we also crave meaning.
And that deep down we know that nothing worthwhile comes easily. And so when we sign up for something that’s supposed to be hard, if we don’t get it, we complain because what we were after wasn’t “easy”—what we were after was meaning.
And by not giving us hard, it isn’t that you gifted us easy… it’s that you took away meaning.
…And that’s much harder to deal with than a meaningless easy.