Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Easy vs. difficult

  • McDonald's = easy.   Cooking at home = difficult.
  • Spending money = easy.  Saving money = difficult.
  • Eating your favorite food = easy.  Eating healthy = difficult.
  • Following directions at work = easy.  Finding creative solutions on your own at work = difficult.
  • Judging others negatively = easy.  Treating others with respect when they don't do the same = difficult
  • Threatening your kids with discipline = easy.   Enforcing discipline = difficult.
  • Not talking to your spouse after an argument = easy.  Apologizing and admitting you're wrong = difficult.
  • Sleeping in = easy.  Getting up early for a 30 minute run = difficult.
  • Letting your kids watch a movie while you take a nap = easy.  Actively engaging in fun family activities when your tired= difficult.
And the list goes on.  We all know that when you consistently sacrifice and actively do the difficult things in life you have a stronger marriage, finances, health, family, career, etc.   What we end up doing when we choose easy - when we do something we know we shouldn't - we beat ourselves up for it.  We say we aren't good enough to do the difficult and we give up and go back to easy.  That's where we fail.

Sometimes easy is downright foul, but not every time for every circumstance.
The problem for me is when I always choose easy.  When I consistently eat out or when I frequently talk negatively about others, that's when I get stuck in a rut and find it very hard to get out.   If I go too long without exercising, it becomes very hard to get back into the shape I want.

Easy isn't always bad
Once in while - go ahead and eat whatever you want, let the kids watch tv, sleep in.  Nothing wrong with that.   Starving yourself completely from that warm brownie with hot fudge, whip cream, and ice cream on top won't work.   It's just too damn good.  Going cold turkey for most of us is practically impossible.  It might even be unhealthy.  But if you choose difficult regularly, you find it is easier to choose the difficult in the long run.