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A Remarkably Simple Life-Changing Question

Unlock a fresh perspective for a more deliberate life

Duncan Jones
5 min readJan 8, 2023

Taking the path of least resistance is what we do in many areas of life, to our detriment. “That’s a problem for future me”, we think as we devour crappy food and stay up too late scrolling social media. We default to a way of living that requires the least conscious design. At each fork in the path, we take the road most travelled (to the disdain of Robert Frost).

In some other universe, a wiser version of ourselves made a different choice at each fork in the road. That version of us ended up somewhere different. Perhaps not too far from where we ended up, but, dear God, it’s a nicer place to be. Full of deliberate decisions, and sensible choices.

How do we course correct? How do we undo a lifetime of default choices in areas of our lives such as parenting, working, or exercising? One way is to ask a disarmingly simple question:

What would this look like if it was easy?

I first encountered this question on the Tim Ferriss podcast, and I’ve realised it’s one of the most powerful self-development questions you can ask.

What Would This Look like If It Was Easy?

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Duncan Jones
Duncan Jones

Written by Duncan Jones

Productivity writer focused on work/life balance. Sharing observations from 16 years of growing a career alongside a family.

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