The gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it is huge

I once asked a doctor: What is the hardest part of your job?

It's not pressure or responsibility, it's very basic “let my patients do what I want them to do,” she said.

At first I didn't understand it, but when she explained it, I understood.

“You have an appointment with a patient, and you say 'I need you to complete this indicator test, see this specialist, and take that drug' they came back a month later, but they haven't done anything.” They either don't care, can't afford it, or they don't have time.

She explained that being a good doctor meant spending more time managing her patients rather than managing their diseases. She said there was a huge difference between medicine and a good doctor.

Medical experts know all the correct answers in textbooks. They can make accurate diagnoses and understand all the latest treatments.

Good doctors understand: From a patient's point of view, medications are intimidating, confusing, expensive, and time-consuming. Until you work with the patient to resolve this condition, the details of the diagnosis or prescription of the medication aren't that important, because even the perfect solution won't work for patients who don't follow a will.

A lot of things in life work the same way: investments, relationships, health, career. For everyone, the way we should do it isn't that difficult — but in reality, what is difficult is how we need to act.

In many cases, people want shortcuts without paying a price; patients don't want to eat healthy, they don't want to exercise; they just want a pill to solve everything. Investors don't want to wait ten years to compound their money; they want to become rich overnight.

We live in a world where solutions to problems can be very simple, yet getting people to follow simple advice is extremely difficult.

Excerpt from Morgan Housel Mar 2022