United States Eventing Association

Doing hard stuff is hard. It requires energy and time and dedication and a willingness to fail or come-up short. Perhaps that’s why so many of us struggle taking-on additional challenges in our already challenging-enough lives. Not only that, our brains have been designed to seek smooth; to conserve energy and find the quickest and easiest route from A to B.

Together, the arduous nature of challenges and our brains automatic response to deflect them often leads us to lean away from hard things instead of leaning into them. The only problem is that riding, like life, is hard, and if we always lean away from hard we risk missing-out on experiences and opportunities that can fuel future growth and resilience.

The problem associated with constantly seeking smooth and avoiding hard is described well in a idea called the Paradox of Least Effort (PLE), and it works like this. When we avoid doing something hard and pick easy instead, we get “that thing” done quickly and then move on, but deep down inside we know we were capable of more so the intrinsic rewards we receive tend to feel a bit empty and hollow. That’s that paradox; we want to do what’s easy but we don’t actually feel good about doing what's easy, but we keep doing it anyways. What a paradox!

Now on the other hand, when we become mindful of this tendency and start picking hard over easy, our brains actually begin to repay us with a deeper kind of intrinsic reward (and much more of it) which in-turn creates a more meaningful connection between us and the challenge itself, one that provides us with a bigger boost of the endorphin-powered-happiness that we seldomly experience when we only do easy things.

Now I’m like most of you and love using big words like Paradox of Least Effort from time-to-time, but a group of researchers recently came up with a much more clever way of labeling PLE. They removed a few of the fancy syllables and simply called it the IKEA Affect, and here’s how it works:

We like it when we buy a fancy table from a fancy online store and then have it delivered and installed in our lining room. That’s easy, and that feels nice, especially when our lives life feel like the “overwhelming is overflowing.” But, when we drive across town (or across the state) to an IKEA store, get lost twice trying to find the cabinet section, write the item number on whatever paper we find in the bottom of our pocket, head downstairs to locate and load it onto that awkward cart, drive it home, build it, and then take it apart and build it again because we built it wrong the first time, and then finally stand-it-up and lean it against the wall—well we feel a much deeper and more meaningful connection to that table (way more than the one we ordered online and had installed). We’ve now created a really positive relationship between ourselves and the challenge, and it feels so good!

In the end, hard is hard, but hard is meaningful and ultimately creates a greater sense of connection between us and our ability to perform—and enjoy—doing challenging things. Easy is easy, but if we’re all honest about it, we don’t always feel that same deep connection between us and the challenge when we avoid doing it.

So this month I challenge you to either go build an IKEA cabinet or go find something equally challenging to overcome. Maybe your challenges would look something like this: The next time you have a poor start do you do what’s easy and give up, or do you do what’s hard and finish strong? The next time you feel nervous entering your dressage test do you do what’s easy and worry about the judge, or do you do what’s hard and believe in yourself? The next time you pull a rail in stadium do you do what’s easy and get bummed out, or do you do what’s hard and make the rest of the ride the best of the ride?

In the end, the choice is ours, and the choice is hard, but hard is what will ultimately make us all a bit bolder, braver and brighter!

I hope you enjoyed this month’s Pressure Proof tip. I’m building my 2026 winter, spring and summer clinic tours now. If you like more information or my clinics feel free to email me at [email protected] or visit my website at https://pressureproofacademy.com/clinics/.