First, there’s the “Easy Path.”
This is the path that requires the least amount of effort. For example: “I’ve been in this dysfunctional unhappy marriage for years. We have a home, children, and joint everything. We don’t really have anything in common anymore and don’t even want to be together. In love? Heck no. We barely like each other. But it’s easier to stay than it is to split up our lives and our family. Change is hard and disruptive.”
So, you stay. It’s easier after all. It’s known and the unknown is scary. You choose to take the easy path and instead of creating a life filled with joy, love, and honoring what you truly desire, you settle for mediocrity and unhappiness because, well, it’s easier.
Or, maybe this better fits you: “I’ve been in this job for the past 15 years. It’s okay. Well, actually, it’s awful but it pays the bills and is what I know how to do. Yes, I dread Mondays and live for the weekends, but I don’t know what else to do. Changing my career would be hard and disruptive.”
So, you stay. It’s easier, right? You choose to take the path of least effort, and instead of doing work that fulfills you, you choose to dread almost every day of the week doing something that’s well, easier.
Then there’s the “Path of Ease”, which, eventually can be the easy path!
The path of ease feels like freedom and flow because it’s calling you forward. It’s pulling at your heart saying, “Look over here. This is what you can have and be and experience, if you stop settling for all that misery in your life.” It’s the path that lights up with “fun, happy, loving relationship” and “fulfilling, thriving, joyful work.” However, those things usually come when you stop choosing easy and instead of seeing change as hard and disruptive, you see it as the necessary step to creating a life you love; where you are thriving, happy, and honoring the callings of your soul.
When you choose to leave the “easy path” of staying in a long term but unhappy marriage and confront the temporary discomfort of required change, you come out on the other side; in a life where you’re happy and treated with love and respect. And, where you are setting a wonderful example for your children of what it means to honor and respect yourself. That is ease.
When you choose to leave the steady but dreadful desk job to launch a brand-new career doing what you love and go through the temporary discomfort of making a career change, you end up on the other side, in a world where you now can’t wait for Monday; in a world where work doesn’t feel like work, and you spend most of your days loving what you do. That is ease.
Here’s the best part. When you give up the easy path and make the required changes to get to the path of ease, you get the best of both worlds. You get the path of ease, which also becomes the easy path. Why? Because you have honored the callings of your heart and soul and are exactly where you’re meant to be.
So, what will it be? The easy path? Or the path of ease? Why not go for both.
Originally appeared https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-easy-path-or-the-path-of-ease_b_591b5be5e4b0a8551f3f83a2
Andria Corso is an award-winning Life and Leadership Coach with 20 years’ experience working with clients to develop leadership skills, develop themselves, advance their careers and businesses, and create whole-life success. She is currently the owner of AndriaCorso & Co., a life, leadership coaching firm specializing in helping individuals reach their highest potential.
Andria is also a bestselling author of Fear to Flow: How to Give Up Your Struggle and Allow Life to Unfold Perfectly. This is her third book and is about how to stop allowing false fears to control you and instead, step into living in the Divine flow of life. To learn more about Andria Corso go to http://www.andriacorso.com.