It’s Okay to Pick the Easy Way Out…and Here’s How

My past modus operandi: take the hardest path and plow through.

I don’t know if any of you are like me, but not only did I pretty much never choose an easier choice, I didn’t even open my mind to consider an easier choice. I didn’t even know an easier choice existed.

I had been trained, or I trained myself, to hunker down and push through anything and everything. I don’t know if I thought I had to prove something, or if that’s how I knew I was worthwhile, or if I simply didn’t get that there was another option. I do know that, when faced with a decision about whether to take the difficult road or the painless one, it wasn’t a decision. It just was. Almost like I was on automatic pilot. When it came to choosing between the thing that scared me or something a lot less traumatizing? Again, not a decision. It just was.

At one point, I was faced with a challenge around my dad. Simply put, his cable TV remote wasn’t working (again), and he lives over an hour away. I called the nurse’s station at his nursing home to ask them to go in and push the right buttons and fix it. According to him, they didn’t. I called and asked again. They promised they’d send maintenance right in to help him. According to my dad, that didn’t happen. I agonized over how soon I could take a day to drive up to see him and push the buttons for him…and how I would teach him not to push the wrong buttons the day after I left.

Then I called Comcast. I realized that it was worth the $100 charge to get my dad a working TV. Not when I could make it to see him in a few weeks, but now. I chose the easy way and it felt great!

And while I was on the phone with them, the very, very nice customer service rep told me that I could pay $5.95 a month to get him a service contract, so that whenever he pushed the wrong buttons and his remote was no longer working, one simple call to Comcast would send a technician over to push the right buttons for him again. For FREE!

It was almost too easy. I said yes.

I’ve learned a few things about choosing the easy way:
• It’s okay to do it.
• Just do it.
• If you feel guilty about doing it, it’s probably a good choice.
• You feel a sense of ease when you’re done—or even partway through. As if a boulder that you didn’t even know was on your chest, falls off your chest. If that’s not a sign, what is?
• You have to look beyond what you know. I’ll admit that it was my husband who suggested I just call Comcast in the first place (as I agonized over what and when and how to do this). And it was the Comcast rep who offered the monthly contract.
• It’s okay to ask for help. And to ask for help again.

Yes, I’ve learned that I like the easy choice better. I enjoy having less to prove. I delight in breathing in ease and relishing the space my easy choices give me.

It’s not always the easiest choice to make. But I’m making it more and more.