The Hard Right Vs The Easy Wrong

Throughout the day, every day, we’re confronted with choices. These choices test our will, challenge our character, and prey on our impulses.

But when we consistently make the right choices we prove to ourselves just how capable we are. This invites a wave of confidence, self-belief, and motivation that ripples into every area of our lives.

We often know what the healthy, productive, positive thing to do is? Yet sometimes we don’t choose that path. Why is that?

Hard-wired deep into our psyche is an inclination to prefer immediate gratification. As our minds try to keep us safe and alive, it is primarily concerned with the short-term consequences of things. As long as we always make it to the next moment, we’ll always survive.

Unfortunately, optimizing for the short-term experience often comes at the expense of our long-term well-being. In fact, one of humanity’s fatal flaws is how inclined we are to seek short term gratification.

But seeing the bigger picture for ourselves and the life we want to lead - We know that often we need to reject our short-term impulses in service of long-term gain, and the decision for which path we go down happens in a moment.

My coach Chase Chewning calls this “the hard right vs the easy wrong”.

The hard, disciplined, effortful thing to do, acts as an investment in your future.  It works just like a financial investment. Rather than using the money to buy something that makes your life better or more comfortable right now, you save the money so that it can deliver benefits to you at a later date. The short-term sacrifice creates the long-term reward.

Let’s compare this to the ‘easy wrong’ when we make the easy choice. It’s easier to press the snooze button and stay in bed, reschedule your gym session for another day, not stand up for yourself, get fast food, or scroll on social media instead of building your career. 

It feels comfortable and cozy in the moment, but do it enough times it pulls you off trajectory and slowly leads to a the weight, financial strain, or relationship trouble that you didn’t want. 

The tool I’ve been using to take the ‘hard right' rather than the ‘easy wrong' is asking myself “What’s the victory in the moment?” It has steered me in a positive direction, and my health, daily productivity, self-confidence, impact, and fulfillment is improving because of it.

You’ve probably heard something like this before, but it's always a good to be reminded of it!