Do you do the right thing or the convenient thing?

Next time you complain, ask yourself: Am I doing the right thing for myself or just opting for the convenient thing? How do you know if you are doing the right thing as opposed to the convenient thing? If you are unhappy where you are, in spite of experiencing what you thought was success, you are addicted to doing the convenient thing.

Doing the convenient thing offers instant gratification and it is our default mode because it represents all that is familiar to us, even if that familiarity doesn’t bring us fulfilment. Most find it hard to step into the unfamiliar because of irrational fears and keep doing what they do, even while complaining about it.

“Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right.” – Stephen Covey

For instance, many want to lose weight but are they willing to change their lifestyle, diet and start moving? Instead, they have multiple excuses: no time, no energy, too busy, family commitments… the list goes on. Yet they have time to eat junk food and vegetate in front of screens. If you are loathe to leave the familiar, you will always do the convenient thing which never serves you well in life.

Doing the right thing does. And doing the right thing is hard because it demands that you still yourself, listen hard, understand your needs and follow that deep inner voice within you which is never wrong. Unfortunately, that inner voice does not provide instant gratification or easy solutions. Instead, it suggests and helps open up a path that serves you tremendously well in the long term.

It can be a hard path, though. It demands that you stop giving excuses, playing the blame game or justifying your misery. It demands that you assess your current situation and existing relationships, take a leap of faith, and follow your inner voice. It demands that you get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It demands change, something that many have an instinctive fear of.

“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.” – Bruce Lee

It demands that you let go—whether it is a dead-end relationship, situation, job, bad habit, friendship, or the self-created masks that you have hidden behind for years. Above all, it demands that you get out of your own way and learn to flow with life. It demands that you jump right in and embrace the discomfort, however daunting it may seem.

For most people this is akin to stepping into thin air over a chasm. They think: ‘What if I fall? No, I will fall! I might even die!’ They tend to catastrophize because fear rules them. The bold ones step into that symbolic thin air not because they are fearless but in spite of their fear. And once they do that, they realize it is solid ground after all. Then they keep walking until they get to where they want, answering only to themselves.

Stop settling for the convenient and start doing the right thing today if you are intent on transforming your life. Start by listening to your inner voice. Every time. You only get one chance at this life. Doing the right thing makes you joyful instead of being sunk in convenient misery all your life. Surprise yourself by taking the path that you always wanted to, but were afraid of. Do the right thing for yourself and have fun living the life you always wanted to.

“If its clear that you are doing right thing, just go ahead.” – Giridhar Alwar