Hard on Oneself

There is a really old movie I like a lot.  It is called Ordinary People.  The central characters are a father and mother and brothers (the father is Donald Sutherland and the mum is Mary Tyler Moore).  One brother is like the golden boy, while the other is not.  In it, the golden boy dies in a boating accident.  The story centres around life after he is gone.
It is something the father said that sticks with me big time.  Talking to the remaining son, (who had had all sorts of issues,) he said “I did not have to worry about you.  You were hard enough on yourself.”
I have found that.  I see folk who are unnecessarily hard on themselves.  That is not to say many things are easy.  They are not.  What is the saying “if it was easy everyone would be doing it.” 
Some things are hard but worth the time and effort.  I love the title of a book “The Lazy Gardener.”  I may have said that before, but I am told repeating oneself is a trait of getting older.  Or I could say, the more I say it, the more important it is to me – yeah, lets go with that.  I tend to try and find the easiest way to do a hard thing.  I have seen folk who do the opposite.  They make the easy hard.
I so wonder why that is, and have only come up with that they are uncomfortable with themselves.  There can be many reasons for that, including being born that way, or having suffered abuse as a child.  It seems to me there is a reason for everything.  Anothers life is not mine, and they are free to do what they will, but I think like all of us, I observe.
I have enough trouble without creating more for myself.  I try and make the path I choose for myself as easy as possible. As a friend of mine said quoting a John Lennon song “life is what happens when you are planning other things.”  Personally I try and find the simplest solution possible and move on.  Sometimes I walk away, and sometimes I persevere.  In all cases, I think it depends how much I want it.
My interests drive me, and then there are the unexpected things that happen which are a challenge.  As they say “never a dull moment.” ​