The difficulty slope - is time the only factor for achievement

Almost all of us face difficulties while pursuing our career or interests or ambition and after sometime we assume that these difficulties are part of the process to reach the destination or goal. Some tell us they faced the same, others tell us even greater instances, enough for us to assure ourselves that we are no different. If we observe and try to measure on a scale, we can see that these obstacles are of different intensity for each one of us. Now try to imagine the exact moment when we are hit by these obstacles, what happens? Achieving the goal becomes a bit difficult or we can say; now we need more effort to achieve the same goal.

What is our next step? We start finding reasons; quite often it is to shield ourselves. Some of the most famous reasons we end up with are Bad Luck, Destiny and so on. Instead of comparing these difficulties with factors such as bad luck or any other emotional instincts which we normally do, we can compare it with a simple factor which we all have in common, i.e. Time. Every obstacle or difficulty that comes on our way has an impact and its prime impact is on our time. We start losing it.

Let us now understand further with an example, say 10 people with equal abilities are given a similar task to accomplish with same obstacles and equal time, if we apply our common sense (simple math) we will say that all 10 of them will achieve the goal at the same time. Now if we look at it with practical approach, it is possible that some would have finished the task, some wouldn’t have. Let us assume that each one has finished the task within the allotted time with certain variations which are very logical i.e. some might have finished a bit earlier than others and ofcourse some later. Now if we ask each of them about their experience and the level of difficulty faced by them in completing the same, the answer would be different for each one of them. Why? The simple reason behind the different intensity of difficulty faced by each one of them is because; the manner in which the equal time was utilized by each one of them involved human judgment.

After this example we have been able to establish that the manner of time management is the only factor for experiencing difficulty in a rational environment. Since we have used the term difficulty many times, we first need to define difficulty with a different approach. We call a task difficult when we need to put additional effort to do it as compared to any common task. Otherwise we can say, more effort we need put, the more difficult we call it.

In the above paragraphs we have been revolving around certain common circumstances. Now to summarize, we can say if we have a task, the more time we take to complete the task, the more effort we have to put in to complete it. Or as we call it usually, the more difficult it becomes. If we plot time and effort on a graph (given below), applying the above principles we can see that as we take more time to complete a task, it proportionately increases the difficulty as well as the effort.

Obviously we can’t conclude by saying that proper utilization of time is the only factor for achievement, various factors can affect the accomplishment like how realistic the goal is, or capabilities of a person, or events which can’t be overcome quickly but if put in a rational environment, time becomes a significant factor. Making only us responsible for the results.

We can apply this principle in various scenarios, say for example, the more time a company takes to bring in changes in a competitive and changing environment the more vulnerable it becomes and more effort is required to get back on track or the more time a government takes to change policies or to bring in new policies, the more effort is required to get the nation back on track, and so on.

Therefore, the graph shows that with every minute mismanaged or wasted, we are pushing ourselves into a more difficult environment to achieve our goal.