Recently I’ve noticed a lot of talk about manifesting your reality and how easy it is. How in just 5 minutes a day you can turn your idea into a multi-million dollar business! Or how I went from $0 to $3.6 million in 6 months – pay now and find out my secrets!

Honestly, I’ve never known anyone who has a truly thriving business, or even an amazing relationship, who would say it was easy. Getting what you want takes work. And work isn’t bad. Hard work can give you a sense of satisfaction and joy working, and it can even have a quality of ease. But there is a huge difference between easy and ease.

We’ve had big projects, like the Kickstarter crowd funding campaign for the book Peter and I wrote, and it has not been easy. In fact it has been full of challenges. The projects of the past few years have even brought me to tears at times. And yet, still, there has been a sense of ease a great deal of the time. Ease when I think of my purpose and how this aligns with the wok I’m doing. Ease when my team’s eyes sparkle when we talk about our mission.

Ease comes from alignment. Alignment with what it is that you truly want, what you believe in, and what you’re passionate about.

Easy is the road most often traveled, the avoided challenge, the missed opportunity.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t need it to be easy. I’d rather get accomplish my goals. My heart and soul are content when I tap into ease, and that’s much better than easy.

So, how do you know if a challenging situation is worth pushing through? How do you know if it’s just a matter of exerting some focused effort in order to make it happen, or if it’s truly not your path?

Ask yourself these questions:

1. If I didn’t do this, at the end of my life would I wish I had?
2. Does this endeavor seem to align with my life purpose and core values, and does it utilize my gifts?
3. Will it serve the world?
4. If I take 10 minutes or so to quiet my mind and feel what I’m experiencing in relation to the project at hand, do I feel passion for it beneath the current feeling of challenge?

These questions will guide you to your answer. Don’t allow a little hard work to stop you from reaching your dreams. I wish you not a lack of work, but a sense of ease even while you’re breaking a sweat.