Easy

Life is simple, it's just not easy. Back in graduate school, I remember learning about a theory called, "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." Abraham Maslow studied some impressive individuals such as Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt and in 1943 wrote a paper called, "A Theory of Human Motivation." He extended his theory and contended that as human meets some basic needs and then they seek to satisfy higher needs that occupy a particular hierarchy. He devised a pyramid of sorts to show the successive needs and five decades later I was forced to memorize it for an exam at the university.

The basic needs of a human being are things such as eating, drinking, shelter, personal security, health and sleep. As those needs are met, a human moves up the pyramid to pursue needs such as family, friendship, love, a sense of belonging and respect. You get the idea.

In today's developed society, it's really not that hard to meet basic needs. In a lot of ways, meeting basic needs such as eating, drinking, shelter and sleep is sort of a given in the United States. Meeting basic needs in life is simple; get a job, get a roof over your head and once a week take a trip to the grocery store where you will be inundated with delicious choices.

So the essence of life is simple; eat, sleep and be merry. But somehow, we sure do make things hard on ourselves. People in the United States are really quite talented at taking things that should be easy, and making them very hard. Life should be about determining what makes you happy and then doing it. Along the way you get a job, and do some eating and sleeping. I found that heating and air conditioning are nice perks too and worth the little bit of extra work.

The following is the American way of doing things: You realize you need a job but determine that not any job will do. After watching enormous hours of television while you grew up, you have learned that there are more socially acceptable jobs than others. Based on this keen observation you decide that rather than taking an easier job that might pay better, you decide to pursue the job that is more socially acceptable that can help you relate to your favorite television shows like E.R., L.A. Law or being the ruler of the free world. However, you find out that the more socially acceptable jobs require more education. Education costs money but you are broke. No big deal, you borrow a bunch of money and spend a few extra years chasing co-eds to later learn that the socially acceptable job that you went to school for requires that you work a lot of extra hours. That's ok, you're willing to do the work but then realize after having lunch with the same co-workers everyday for six months that everybody else has a nicer car and a nicer home than you do. You feel inadequate that the new kid fresh out of college has better wheels than you so you start shopping for a new car. Unfortunately the student loans have you strapped. But that's ok, because the finance guy at the car dealership who isn't wearing matching socks and doesn't have a college degree but makes twice as much money as you, informs you that you could still drive away with a new car if you lease it. It's a deal. So you head back to work in a new car feeling good about yourself and your new lease payment with a kick ass stereo and navigation unit. The navigation unit was an excellent add-on even though 99% of your driving is to and from work on a freeway with three million other smart people in bumper to bumper traffic listening to Madonna while looking at a red triangle on a navigation display that hasn't moved in 15 minutes.

Six months later and one pant size bigger, you realize how lonely you are without a significant other. You know you are a great catch because you have a fancy business card at a well known firm and drive a fancy auto. Somebody should be "lucky" to have you. You haven't been able to meet anybody for a long time other than the batch of new recruits brought in at the firm and you decide to give internet dating a shot. After posting a little message about yourself which includes your professional resume, you submit a picture of yourself that only shows you from the shoulders up because the gut is a little bit bigger than you realized once you saw yourself in recent pictures. No sweat because there were plenty of takers interested in having dinner. After reviewing your calendars and each offering 23 different dates to get together even though you don't do anything except work, you pick a random Thursday that is mutually agreed upon. You show up to the dinner running a little late but that's ok because the other person had to get out a few last minute emails as well before heading out of the office. In between answering your cell phone and responding to emails using a BlackBerry, you discover that your date likes the color blue and hates stories of starving children in Africa which is amazing because you love the color blue and stories of starving children in Africa make you sad as well. You fall in love and after a big beautiful wedding at the country club with five hundred of your closest friends, neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances you buy a big house with an interest only mortgage because you can't afford the 30-year fixed mortgage with your student loans, credit card payments and your monthly auto lease bill.

Two more pant sizes and a bucket of kids later; you enroll your kids in private school because the public school doesn't teach 2+2 = 4 for first graders as well as the $12,000 per year private school. The only downside to the private school selected is that it's on the other side of town but fortunately with the navigation system that you have in the leased auto, you figured out a way to shave two minutes off of the forty minute drive before getting on the freeway to head to work.

Two more pant sizes later you wake up one day and can't figure out why you aren't happy with yourself. Maybe losing thirty or forty pounds would help but you don't have time to go to the gym consistently because of the great promotion that you got last year. The stress is really starting to get to you because your spouse can't understand why you have to spend so much time at the office and why you can't pick up the kids from private school on the other side of town once in a while. Meanwhile the credit card bills seem to be racking up and it cost you a few extra thousand when you turned in your leased auto because of all the extra miles that you put on the car. You learn that hobbies and passions are what other 'less important' people do. You call the doctor the following day to ask for a different prescription for your high cholesterol and blood pressure because whatever the doctor is giving you is making you feel like crap all of the time.

Eventually you discover that you are depressed and need additional medication. Anxiety becomes a normal state of affairs but what really upsets you is those darn cyclists that are only going 18 mph when you need to get somewhere in a hurry.

Similar to life in general, Ironman is simple, it's just not easy. A big component of success in life and in Ironman is determining what makes you happy and then aligning your time and resources to do what makes you happy. But if you decide that Ironman makes you happy, you don't have to make it more difficult than it has to be. Ironman isn't about cramming as much training into twelve day, twelve weeks or twelve months as possible. Rather, it's about cramming as much training into twelve years as possible. But that takes time and the choice has to be made to either do the training or do something else. At the end of the day, it's not that complicated; swim, bike and run. It just takes time to do those three things. But isn't that the best thing about Ironman?