Make It Easy On Yourself

I had a teacher in high school who used to say that. More specifically, she would say it to me and a friend as we chatted away the last half of the class period, rather than working on the homework that she had let us get a head start on.

My teacher would often assign us homework (this was in Calculus) and then give us the last 30-45 minutes of the class to work on it, maybe even complete it if we could (our class periods were 90 minutes). So if we were lucky we’d leave class with our homework finished and nothing we needed to do that evening. You know, easy.

But, I had a friend from the basketball team in my class, and like teenagers do, we often wanted to just hang around and talk during that time we were being given to do our homework. It felt like free time and who wants to work through calculus problems in their free time?

Often in the middle of our gab sessions, our teacher would come over to redirect us back to calculus, and say, “Girls, make it easy on yourselves. Get your homework done.” And, you know, sometimes we would actually do that.

I’ve never forgotten about this idea of making it easy on myself, mostly because there are many times when I’m making it hard on myself. For whatever reason, sometimes I bypass the easy for the hard.

When I can, I look out for ways to make it easy. Is there something that would make whatever I’m doing simpler? Is there an easier way through? Am I missing the easy way because there is something I’m attached to in the moment or something that temporarily feels good? Good questions. 🙂

What do you think? Do you make things easy on yourself?

Amanda Linehan is the author of North, about a young woman on the run from her past, the law and an old adversary out to get her. Her newest release is Bored To Death: A Vampire Thriller, about a 300-year-old vampire trying to restore the balance between life and death. She has published five novels.