What Is Right Vs. What Is Easy
What is Right vs. What Is Easy
I have never been the biggest Harry Potter fan, but like most, I found myself going through a phase where I was heavily invested. I had my phase when the final three movies came out, but my fiance is having her phase right now. We have been sitting down and watching a different movie whenever we have the extra 2 and a half hours to do so. We recently watched the fourth movie, The Goblet Of Fire, and there was something at the end of the movie that struck a chord with me. While talking to Harry about what the future might have in store, Dumbledore says, “Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right”
Doing What Is Hard
Yes, doing the right thing is never easy. If it were, all of us would do it, and we would live in a perfect world. Sadly, it is not the case. Therefore, I take my hat off to anyone who tries to do the right thing and attempts to make a difference by doing what is hard. As a coach, I will never be upset when an athlete is aggressive taking out a race, and pays the consequences on the back end. In my eyes, hard work will fix the falling apart on the end, but taking a chance at the front end will allow the swimmer to set themselves up for success when that comes. What is possible for any successful person is also possible for you because it is only a matter of the heart! As a result, these hard but right moments will help you feel victorious in life because it is not easy to encourage yourself to make decisions that enlarge your comfort zone to a new and more significant level. These are the moments that provide you with great reward and allow you to feel that you are on the right path, and if the end goal is not achieved, you won’t “should” all over yourself (“I should’ve tried harder,” or “I should have gone to more practices”).
Do What Is Right
If you want to go to where you want to be, you have to do what is right, and not what is easy. It is critical to line up your actions to what your goals are. I often tell my group, “Everyone wants to be in Senior Performance, but not a lot of people want to do Senior Performance things.” These “things” can be identified as always going on the A interval, being coachable, swimming longer events and always having positive body language. I believe anyone can do all of that when they have had an awesome day and are feeling motivated, but it is on the days where getting an extra 10 seconds rest per effort on a butterfly set sounds pretty nice that you have to make the decision to stay on your desired path. You have to lay one brick at a time, even when you do not feel like it. It may be something which pushes you to reach beyond your current ability and confidence, but those actions will affect your life and the lives of those around you for the better. It takes courage to do what is right and become who you are, but there is nothing greater than knowing what you want and spending the rest of your natural life going after it. Taking the easy route is not always the “wrong” way to do something, but if your goal is to be the best version of yourself, the easy way may not be the correct route.
“Every time you choose to do the easy thing, instead of the right thing, you are shaping your identity”. Everything we do today affects who we become tomorrow. Our actions become habits, and those habits shape our tendencies to make decisions when we are feeling motivated, and not motivated. We need to think about what is right for us, what is right for others, what is right in that particular moment and how those decisions help us or deter us from our ultimate goal. The right path and easy path are usually two different things, so next time you want to skip practice, skip a 100 in practice, or go on a slower interval because it is less difficult, ask yourself if that decision will help you get to what your ultimate goal is.
GO SMAC!
- Julian
