(“‘Blah, blah, blah,’  she hears.”)

A young woman in her Pre-Enlightened phase was trotting and cantering ring figures the other day. Superficially her horse was obedient but not pliable in his jaw or flexible or elastically connected in any way. When chided by her instructor for this shortcoming, she complained about how hard it was to ride the way her instructor wanted.

“Connect him from back front so he reaches into the outside rein. Supple him around your inside leg. Unlock his jaw. Counter flex him for a few steps. Have projects. Do something! Blah, blah, blah,” she hears.

But she sighs again, “It’s so hard to do it this way.”

“And your point?” her instructor counters.

There is silence.

Somewhat exasperated, she realizes this is the second time in one week that some teacher has told her she was doing things completely wrong. Her personal trainer at the gym had scolded her for, of all things, picking up a dumbbell incorrectly.

Picking it up the instructor’s “correct” way is harder she had told him.

“That’s the point,” he replied.

“But I just want to pick it up.”

“No, you don’t,” he insisted. “That’s not what you want at all.”

Once you get it, it seems so obvious: What you do is of nominal interest. Why you do things is what really matters, and that rationale dictates how you do it.

With that realization, hard versus easy becomes irrelevant. If you’re not doing it correctly, you’re not doing it at all. And if you don’t want to really do it, why would you even bother in the first place.