{"id":11,"date":"2016-06-03T15:52:56","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T15:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thefight\/?p=11"},"modified":"2016-06-03T20:04:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T20:04:06","slug":"dont-take-the-easy-way-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thefight\/2016\/06\/dont-take-the-easy-way-out.html","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Take the Easy Way Out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"banner\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/400\/2016\/06\/IMG_3720-small-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Life is all about minimizing the amount of times you take the easy way out...\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Life is all about minimizing the number of times you take the easy way out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We have all done it and it is never ever gratifying. Even when something works out in our favor but we know we took the easy way out, there is something inside of us that feels lacking. I truly believe we were put on this earth to experience great things\u2013and great things cannot fully come to fruition if you are constantly taking the easy way out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Just as iron must be cast into extreme hot and then extreme cold temperatures to be made into a precious metal, so too do you need to experience all the aspects of the process, the fight you are in.\u00a0Slacking in areas you know need attention, sleeping in when you know you should be up and productive, waiting until the last minute when you know you shouldn\u2019t, and skipping out on reps at the gym.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Taking the easy way out may or may not result in success, but it will ALWAYS end in a small amount of self-loathing, and when a person\u2019s self-worth is tied to their \u201ctry\u201d it\u2019s dangerous to not give your all. After all, there aren\u2019t a large amount of things you can control in this life, but you can always control your effort to your craft.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">To Your Success,<br \/>\nMichael Chandler<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Life is all about minimizing the number of times you take the easy way out. We have all done it and it is never ever gratifying. Even when something works out in our favor but we know we took the easy way out, there is something inside of us that feels lacking. I truly&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":604,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,6,4,3,7],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","tag-easy-way-out","tag-inspirational","tag-iron-michael-chandler","tag-michael-chandler","tag-mma-fighter"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don\u2019t Take the Easy Way Out - The Fight<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thefight\/2016\/06\/dont-take-the-easy-way-out.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t Take the Easy Way Out - The Fight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Life is all about minimizing the number of times you take the easy way out. We have all done it and it is never ever gratifying. Even when something works out in our favor but we know we took the easy way out, there is something inside of us that feels lacking. I truly&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thefight\/2016\/06\/dont-take-the-easy-way-out.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Fight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mikechandlermma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-03T15:52:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-03T20:04:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thefight\/files\/2016\/06\/IMG_3720-small-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mchandler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MikeChandlerMMA\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Don\u2019t Take the Easy Way Out - The Fight","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thefight\/2016\/06\/dont-take-the-easy-way-out.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Don\u2019t Take the Easy Way Out - The Fight","og_description":"&nbsp; Life is all about minimizing the number of times you take the easy way out. 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