The easy way?

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Often when something is difficult or time consuming I find myself trying to devise an easier or quicker way to do it. When I buy beets for juicing - stems and leaves still on, I have a tendency to throw them in the refrigerator, until I need them only to find them in a disgusting state of decay from the humidity in the area of the frig where I laid them. I justify this because it would take time to get out the cutting board, separate them, cut them into juicable sized stems and leaves, put them in ziplock bags and then, in the refrigerator.

Even as I type these sentences I am thinking, how can I get this piece on doing things the easy way done a little easier, without poring over every word and without editing it after I am finished.

I have known people who dropped out of college because of a math class, an English class or in one case, “because I could tell I had nothing in common with the professor”, only to find life without college quite tough - with jobs harder to come by and the ones available not what they would prefer. I wonder if they ever think that the easier way, not finishing college, actually turned out to be the hard way; the way I think when I see my beet stems and leaves rotting in the refrigerator and I have to throw them away. Maybe I should start processing my veggies as soon as I get them home, the way I did this afternoon, because I knew I was going to be writing this piece on not always taking the easy way out.

This past spring I tried to run a marathon without putting in enough training miles per week and I wound up walking much of the second half and finishing thirty minutes slower than my previous marathon time. But I start thinking of easy alternatives even when the thing I am doing is not nearly as hard as training for a marathon. I do it if I am replacing a ceiling fan or a light switch, writing an essay or an email, making a speech or just chit-chatting with someone. I am always looking to cut corners on big things or on small ones.

I suspect a psychologist would tell me this tendency is a sign I am ADHD, which I bet I was when I was little, although they did not have the diagnosis back then; and which I bet I still am. But it would not surprise me if a lot of people would not say they did the same thing. In fact, finding easy ways of doing things is sort of like what engineers do for a living, so it cannot be all bad, right?

It is probably not that big of a problem if I cut corners to save time, money or energy; when the matter is not life or death for me or a loved one, or when it does not mean I compromise my performance on an important project or shortchange the quality of my future life, in some way. The only problem is, I not only do it on unimportant things; I do it on big ones too.

I did it as a high school student, where I did not work my hardest. I did it my first year of college and I am not sure I did not do it on my Ph.D. dissertation, which honestly, I was never all that proud of as an accomplishment. It got me my degree, but I do not believe I came close to giving it everything I had. By that time, I just wanted to be done with the degree and move on with the rest of my life, instead of taking pride in the process and product.

I have known people who have given up on relationships, on members of their family, even on their state of residence – moving to another state in hopes that the new state would fix their problems. I knew one couple that gave up on keeping their money in banks because the bank was always hassling them about writing bad checks. When they told anyone they kept their money at home instead of a bank, they made it sound like the bank had done them wrong – actually that several banks in succession had done them wrong and so they finally gave up on banks.

It is easier to take supplements than to eat the proper foods, easier to sit sweating twenty minutes in a sauna than to spend that time on an elliptical, and in general it appears to be easier to take a hand full of pills than to either eat right or exercise. It gets worse, when it comes to health. Apparently, a lot of people think it is easier to have multiple by-pass surgeries than it is to take care of their health by not eating cholesterol-filled animal products and dairy.

Clearly lying in bed an extra hour is easier than getting out of bed and running three miles, or getting on an exercise bike, right? I mean, you have to put on your clothes, stretch, run-which is no fun - and then come back home and shower, then put on other clothes, whereas if you stayed in bed, all you had to do was find one outfit after you showered and just slip on your clothes.

But lying in bed day after day and year after year without doing work on your body only seems easier. At some point, the “difficulties” of living that way start to become obvious. You wind up in poor health, in the hospital, taking all kinds of pills, hurting all over, having headaches, stomach problems, thinking problems, problems getting around, not being able to go on a hike, not being able ultimately, to easily get out of the bed you so easily chose to lie in all those mornings, instead of getting up and doing the more difficult thing, taking care of the only body you will ever have.

I know, I am a big one to talk, but the next time you succumb to the temptation to take the easy way out, ask yourself, where is the hidden difficulty in that “so-called” easier way? I am going to try myself, although it sure is a lot easier to just write an essay on the subject.