Easy Way or Hard Way???You Decide

We are a culture really a nation of the easy way. Everything these days has to be the easiest, fastest most succinct way possible. Let's take a look at this phenomenon that has evolved over time.

When I look back at my childhood things were not always easy but that was not always a bad thing either. They say a man's (or woman's) character is not only measured with how they win but often it can be more accurately gauged in how they lose. I am, in most cases, not a good loser. I have gotten better about it with age but my roots in childhood really were all about the highest level of competition for everything or anything. That being said, I'm fairly certain I benefited at certain times in my life to be competitive.

So what's so bad about receiving things easy you may ask and even if you don't ask, I'll ask for you. I think it's a fairly simple answer. You quite frankly don't appreciate the value of most things you obtain easily. My daughter really bought and paid for all of her motor vehicles herself. I don't think it's an accident that she has had no car accidents. You hear almost every day about the teenager who totals his or her car and as the story unfolds you see that Daddy just bought the car for said teenager and in many cases will continue to buy the cars which will quite possibly continue to end up in the same manner. That teenager didn't have to work for that car. There's no value placed upon anything that is spoon fed.

Let's talk about more easy things. How about all the morons who love parking in the fire lanes at stores instead of using assigned parking spaces so as to save an extra 10 or 20 steps? Credit cards are easy right? You see where that has gotten many people. Microwaves may be an example of something invented to make things easy that has actually been a benefit. Easy can be good and easy can be detrimental. My employer has a saying that sometimes the easy way to do something is the hard way. That's his way of saying if you do it the easy way, you will most likely be re-doing it.

This whole topic is a pretty constant source of annoyance to my wife. She "contends" that I try to do things the easy way and they end up being disasters, sometimes of epic proportions. I always think of what I am attempting as multi-tasking but for some inexplicable reason does not end up the way I had planned. So perhaps she has a point although I'd never admit it to her at the time. (I do have my pride)

Ordering things online is easy. This is both good and bad. It can be good as you aren't forced to deal with the often times insufferable crowds. It can be hard if you have to return something or if better yet you never get the item. At least if you purchase something locally from a physical address you know where and how to return it.

So easy is sometimes easy and easy is sometimes a horrible route to take. The next time you have to do a project or task and you have two ways to accomplish it, I hope you think of these little words of wisdom. Doing something the hard way might just be the best decision you could ever make.