Exerting oneself in ibaadat

I have a question about the Sahabi who only did the bare minimum and didn't do too many optional acts. When another Sahabi stayed at his house for 3 days he didn't notice anything special that he was doing. Despite this, Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said he was a jannati. Other Sahaba always followed the azeemat and took the more difficult path. So, as a general rule, should I take the easy path or the hard path when I have to make a decision?