The Path of Least Resistance

The other day my friend said “Well, I had no reason to say no, hence I said yes”, a reasonable answer and one that most people give, to explain their apparent lack of choice in most matters. This got me thinking, is it true that in most cases we don’t have a choice and we take up the “only” available option? Or is it that we simply choose not to choose?? How often have we chosen the path of least resistance in our life? How much of our life is by "Default" and not by "Design"? How often have our circumstances and society defined our paths and choices for us?

It is a commonly accepted fact that the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line. But just because the path is the shortest, doesn’t mean it’s the oft taken one. Look at any river; it meanders its way through the landscape, from its origin to its end, a river rarely takes the shortest path to the sea. It takes the path of least resistance, the easy path, which is determined by the lay of the land. The river takes this path, albeit a meandering one, so that it expends the least energy.

Therein lies the irony; the shortest path does not necessarily mean the easiest, but we always seek the easiest and the safest path and thus a meandering path. I look back at my life and I find it riddled with incidents or events, which have occurred because I chose the path of least resistance, because I decided to go with the flow. Taking the short cuts, accepting the norms and being lazy and lethargic. My life was “OK” so why mess with a good thing? that was my point of view. I did it because of inertia, because of my unwillingness to question the status quo and here I am surprised by the result, shocked at where i find myself. This “Fear of Success” has driven me to accept mediocrity in my life. I have come to accept the compromises, the adjustments and the “OK” nature of it all, just to avoid responsibility of choosing a path, while all along convincing myself that this is the only option.

Well look around us and we find successful companies being driven by visions and goals, with review mechanisms in place to track and manage success and we all work in these companies and know of these mechanisms, but we rarely make it work for us. How often do we plan, achieve and make the tough, but the right choices in our life and how much of our life happens because we choose the easy option i.e. the "Only Option"??

It is hard for us to design our life and easy to let it happen to us by default. For when we choose the path, we then become responsible for the path and its outcome, which is scary because then we will have only ourselves to blame. Responsibilities and expectations daunt us. By claiming something we become visible and we stand out from the rest and that is something we fight against all our life. We want to blend in, not stand out. We are programmed to behave, to obey, to conform and not be different. Fears are instilled in us, fate and destiny are thrown at us, religion, retribution and hell is added into the mix in as well. It’s no wonder we are afraid to challenge, design and believe.

As Robert Frost said,
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference

So maybe we need to choose our own path, a path not defined by ease, but by belief. Cut through the forest, climb the mountains and conquer the fear, because sometimes the hardest path is also the most rewarding, fulfilling and also the shortest. The risk of being “unrisky” and doing OK is more dangerous than the risk of choosing your path and failing.