Easy Path Culture

What would you do if you had more time?  Would you make your own wine?  Would you visit those friends just 50 miles away?  Would you play more cards?  Would you volunteer at a senior's home?  Would you learn Japanese or Spanish?  Would you join the team? 

What would you do if you could afford it?  Would you travel the world?  Would you support a foster child?  Would you remodel your home?  Would you ask your partner out for dinner more often?  Would you collect and remodel vintage cars?  Would you learn to fly?

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?  Would you write a book?  Would you spend more time with that teenager?  Would you take up music?  Would you find out who Shakespeare REALLY was?  Would you run a marathon?  Would you call her?

What would you do if you only had the time, money and/or courage?  Would you stop watching so much television?  Would you put down the cell phone and enjoy where you are? 

There are three common reasons people give for not doing the things they know they'd love to do.  No time.  No money. Fear of failure.  Let's examine these excuses for not ambitiously pursuing a fabulous existence.

Time - it is never true that you don't have the time to do things.  You have 24 hours a day, just like everyone else.  Don't say you don't have the time, say you have different priorities.

Money - most things we want in life are financially available to us - eventually.  The question is, "How badly do you want it?"  Can you live with less to get access to those things you love?  Money is never an obstacle, it simply causes our gratification to be delayed.  You have the money required to access your dreams, if you can manage it well over time.

Fear of Failure - In those soon-to-be-gone industrial days, failure was a catastrophe.  "Develop a sound plan, execute flawlessly", they said.  In the soon-to-be-here knowledge economy, failure is an opportunity to learn.  People who learn from their mistakes know things that others have not learned yet.  This is particularly useful in a constantly changing world where new opportunities are emerging all of the time. 

You have the time do to those things you'd love to do.  With discipline, you can also eventually have the money.  These are just questions of personal priorities.  You may not have the courage to 'follow your dreams', but once you realize the many values of simply getting involved, those excuses fall away too.  So, what are you waiting for?

Time, money, and fear are just excuses, they are not the REAL reasons people fail to pursue their dreams. The REAL reason is most of us are simply not tough enough to take the more challenging road.  We are a society of convenience. an 'easy path culture'.  The easy path is, well, easier.  So, that's generally the one we take - the one of least resistence.

If there is one thing I have learned in my years, it is that the 'easy path' is seldom the best path.  There are fewer choices on the easy path.  There are fewer opportunities, challenges and new experiences on the easy path.  The easy path has fewer highs and lows and fewer real human experiences.  There is simply less life when you pursue the paths that are easy.  Yet we sit in our chairs, comfortably numb in our existence.

"The child is grown, The dream is gone.I have become comfortably numb." (Comfortably Numb, The Wall, Pink Floyd)

It does not have to be this way, even if it has been all you've known.  Make the change.  Do that one thing you know you want to do.  Sure makes getting up in the morning more interesting.