Happy Sunday Everyone-More importantly, Happy Mother’s Day!!
There aren’t enough “I love you’s” and “thank you’s” in the world to encapsulate the love, respect, and appreciation I have for my own mom. Watching her deal with the worst days of her life with strength, love, and grit, although not unexpected, has been inspiring to witness. Mom-you are the ultimate matriarch to our family, and I love you.
I got on a kick a few weeks ago about the concept of good vs. easy. I started thinking about the difference between good and easy, I started to compare so many decisions and questions I was making to “is this good or is this easy”, then I started talking to Kim about it, and then Jack and Thomas. Everything that happens that is good in our lives is rarely easy and so many easy decisions/choices are rarely good. Jack/Thomas love nothing more than my advice on how to live life, especially when I go into full lecture mode, but this concept resonated with them. We are trying to help them understand making life “easy” for them today will handicap them in the future in living a “good” life. It’s one thing to understand the difference between right and wrong, but it’s a little different on the good vs. easy front. It’s easy to hit snooze, it’s good to wake and move. It’s easy to stop 35 minutes into a run on the treadmill, it’s good to go the 10 more minutes you signed up for. It’s easy to watch TV/look at your phone, it’s good to do your homework now. It’s easy to cancel the trainer, its good not to. It’s easy to let the dishes sit, it’s good to have a clean house. It’s easy to find something else to do, it’s good to make the 30 prospecting calls you need to make. It’s easy to order the fries, it’s good to order the salad.
I understand this is not a revolutionary concept. This probably won’t make it on the cover of self-help magazine but its been working for our family. We’ve found ourselves switching choices based on asking the real time question “is this easy or good”. I took the boys to the Hollywood Bowl a couple of weeks ago to see Willie Nelson’s 90th, I was on the treadmill at the hotel, had plenty of wine the night before, and literally was going to stop until the guilt kicked in that I was making an easy vs. good decision. You make enough good vs. easy decisions and your personal confidence grows. You make enough easy vs. good decisions, and it goes the other way. BTW-i fully understand me explaining I was at Willie’s 90th was a brag, and I do not apologize!
Certain concepts stick with you, “good vs. easy”, resonates with our family as an easy gut check on the decisions and choices we’re making daily, big and small. Keeps it simple, and unemotional.
I got home late last night from my coaching conference in Texas. It would be “easy” for me to explain to Kim I don’t have a card for her because I’ve been gone for a week and she’d understand, it would be “good” for me to get in my car now and drive to the store to pick one up before she wakes up.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday-especially all you MOMS out there!!