Doing what’s easiest is often times a part of human nature, especially when it makes the most sense. But when doing what’s easiest keeps you from progressing in life, it’s time to do something different. How often do you sit back and think of all the things you don’t like about your life? How easy is it for you to mentally playback over and over again what you would’ve done different with your life, given the chance to do so? Do you constantly compare your life to the lives of others and resent the differences? It is always easy to fall prey to these pitfalls because negativity is always easier to present to yourself and to even accept from others. A negative mindset comes with a false sense of justification for who you are and where you are in life and the justification becomes your comfort zone. It’s very easy to ‘go there’ and even live there mentally, in the easy negativity, but what is it really doing for you and the life you want to live? If it is much easier for you to list the things you don’t like about your life than it is to list the likes, you are most likely living in a negative mindset. A negative mindset is the easiest life to live but it’s certainly not the best.
Taking the easy route to work everyday makes sense. The ease of napping daily after work may not be the most productive. Cooking your favorite recipe the easy way most likely saves time. Dodging someone as a way out of a relationship is easy cowardly behavior. Easy is not always the right way to do things and it doesn’t always produce the best results. The sooner you learn when and when not to apply the easy way, the sooner you will experience the best, most productive results in life. I think it is safe to say that when it comes to living your best life, there’s almost nothing easy about it.
Today, everybody wants to live their best life. That is great but please understand that no one will become their best easily. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that being the best person you can be will always require some level of discipline, consistency and determination and there’s nothing easy about any of these. If you find that you spend all of your time only doing what you want to do, there is most likely very little discipline in your life. When it comes to discipline, there will be many things you want to do but you don’t. You don’t do them because you know the ‘no’ will produce better results for that best life you desire to live. The truth is it takes a special kind of determination to acquire the ability to apply discipline in your daily life. I once heard the actor, Will Smith, say “self-love is self-discipline”. What a powerful statement that is. If you really want to know how much you love yourself, take a look at the level of discipline you practice consistently each day to achieve goals and make a better life for yourself. How do you nourish your spirit? How do you nourish your mind? How do you nourish your body? If you’ve made it a habit to do as little nourishing as possible, you’ve fallen prey to the easy way. When you only want to do what’s easiest, you will never know your best.
The bottom line is not a lot comes easy when it comes to living your best life. If you really do want to be the best you and live your best life, you must be willing to look beyond what’s easy to do and what’s the easiest way to get things done. Instead, you want to first acknowledge what the best life is for you and then be willing to do what it takes to get there. Be willing to challenge yourself to stick with a plan and to accept from the beginning that it won’t always be easy. Instead of looking for the easy route, look for the most fulfilling route; the route that includes more growth, more knowledge and more success. Although it sounds exciting to live your best life, the truth is everyday will not be exciting. Everything won’t go as planned. Everybody won’t understand your drive. There will be days when you don’t feel like staying the course. There will be days when you even wonder yourself, why you go so hard. Be ready for these moments and always be ready to move beyond them with the why; because you want to live and give your best life.
Easiest is not always best so don’t allow the easy way of doing things and the easy way of living life mislead you. Often times, it’s a short-cut that short changes you and negates your abilities. Yearn for the most fulfilling way to get things done, to reach your goals, to live your life and go after it! That is how you get to the point of living your best life.
Tawana R. Powell
