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.

 

Avatar photo

About the Author | Lisa Kohn

Lisa Kohn is the author of a memoir, To the Moon and Back, due out September 18, 2018, that chronicles her childhood – growing up in the East Village of New York City in the 1970s and in the Unification Church (the Moonies). Lisa writes of her recovery from the emotional abuse and abandonment she faced, and her now life of hope as a thriving and happy mom, wife, and leadership consultant and coach. You can read more at her website, www.lisakohnwrites.com, where you can also download the first chapter of her book.

Leave a Reply

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