I’m in Hawaii right now. In contrast to Canada, Hawaii in the winter has a consistently warm-but-not-too-hot temperature. Kids can’t get frostbite or hypothermia, so they don’t have to be bundled up against the cold. And there are no bugs. You can eat meals outside, sleep with the window open, where shorts and flip flops every day.

In Hawaii, there’s less friction between wanting to do something outside and doing it. It requires no effort at all. For my Canadian family, the weather has been eliminated as a source of friction, so we’re outside constantly.

In between wanting to do something and doing it, there’s always an ever-present resistance that demands effort to be overcome. Just like getting a vehicle moving, we need the engine to provide enough power to overcome the friction between the wheel and the road.

But when that friction is reduced or removed, what do we do? Do we jump at the chance to get more done with the same amount of energy? Or do we sigh in relief now that we’ve been relieved of expending any effort?

The lazy perspective on less friction is, “If I can make this easier, then I can do less.” The ambitious perspective, “If I can make this easier, then I can do even more with the same resources.”

When there’s less friction — when life gets easier — what do we do? Less? Or more?

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