The Easy Way
Meet Hobbes! He is six-and-a-half months and 59 pounds of enthusiasm, curiosity, and naps. Hobbes enjoys drinking out of puddles, gutters and park water fountains – and he likes to lick the shower floor and the dew off the grass in the morning. He drinks out of his clean water bowl only as a last resort.
Which got me thinking about why I don’t always like to do things the easy way. Perhaps it simply comes down to flavor, but why do we sometimes make things harder for ourselves? I have some ideas…
I don’t like to be told what to do. I may bristle if you tell me what I should do or how I should do it. Left to my own devices, I may choose the easy way. If you tell me to do it the easy way, I may get contrary and do the thing a different, harder way.
I don’t like the easy way. The hard way “tastes better” to me. It makes me feel like I am accomplishing something big – which makes me feel good about myself.
I’m self-sufficient. I don’t need other people to give me things. I can provide for myself. I admit, it’s important to me (to a fault) not to appear needy.
The easy way isn’t always easier for me. We all have strengths and preferences; maybe what others find easy is actually harder for me. For example, if you don’t like to sit still, would you rather drive stop-and-go in heavy traffic on the shortest route or choose to go the long way around (extra time and distance)?
The easy way is boring. Anybody can do it the easy way. How am I going to stand out or distinguish myself from the crowd if I do things like everyone else? How will people know I am special if I don’t do things differently?
Hobbes is probably just living in the moment. For him, it may be as simple as “I am thirsty now; there’s a gross puddle. Yum; tastes great. Five out of five stars.”
We humans are a bit more complicated! I’m betting you have some ideas, too, for why you may take the harder path sometimes when an easier way is open to you. I hope you’ll share those on the post for this blog at https://www.facebook.com/jenfrankcoaching.
Take it easy!