Recently I heard the oft-spoken phrase, “Yeah, that’s easier said than done” and I reflexively nodded in agreement. But later, for some reason, I found myself reflecting on that phrase and it suddenly occurred to me, “Well of course it is! Literally EVERYTHING is easier SAID than DONE!” So why do we say it? As I thought about it, it came to me that while it’s a cute little phrase that we’ve all said (and/or agreed with it when someone else has said it), what it’s mostly used for is as an excuse to not try something.
For example, if I tell someone (which I have, many times) that walking 30-60 minutes a day is really good for not only physical, but emotional, health, and they say, “Well, that’s easier said that done,” they are definitely telling the truth – it IS easier to talk about walking an hour a day than it is to actually do it. However, the way it’s usually said, they might as well be saying, ‘Yeah, I’m probably not gonna do that.” Or “Sure, that sounds good, but by the time I work eight hours and then fix my dinner and then x, y, z, 1, 2, 3, there’s just really no time to do that.”
But is that really true? I think for the majority of people, the answer is no. Have you ever done the “Hours” test? Basically, you start with 168 hours in a week. Optimistically you sleep eight hours a day (seven days), and many of us work eight hours a day (five days). But guess what, that still leaves 72 hours, or an average of 10 hours per day. Now you can chip away at those hours, but – again, for MOST people – if you’re really honest with yourself, even the busiest person can find time to do 30-60 minutes of exercise. It really comes down to a matter of priorities.
But back to the main point here: when someone says “easier said than done”, it is often a form of resistance to trying something, and there may be varied reasons for that, such as fear, self-doubt, not believing the thing is possible, believing it might work for other people but not for them, etc. However, the truth of the fact that something is easier said than done does NOT mean that that one shouldn’t go do it anyway. Anything that’s new or unknown or sounds difficult will raise that resistance or fear or whatever, and it’s really easy to make an excuse and write it off as easier said than done. But it we want to accomplish anything of value in our lives, we’ve got to step up to the plate and take a swing anyway.
I encourage you to stop for a second – any time you hear yourself saying “easier said than done” – and to ask yourself if that’s really true and the thing is not worth doing, or if you’re actually making an excuse to not try something that seems hard or daunting. And if it’s the latter, I urge you to at least move in the direction of that thing and give it a try.
Peace and blessings to you all.