When Claudia and I realize we might be making something more difficult than it has to be, one of us will ask, “What if it’s quick, easy and now?”
It’s a wonderful question. My first coach, Val Olson, gave it to me years ago. I’d spent an entire coaching session affirming my commitment to tenaciously pursue my writing goals and persevere through whatever frustrations and difficulties I might encounter.
“What if you don’t have to struggle? What if it’s quick, easy and now?” Val asked innocently, as if she didn’t know the question would implode my world view.
It was like preparing to jump into Lake Superior in January and stepping into a hot tub instead. A pleasant shock, but a shock nonetheless.
Val knew persistence is one of my strengths. She also knew that an overused strength becomes a weakness.
In his poem “A Father to His Son,” Carl Sandburg advised:
Life is hard; be steel, be a rock,
And this might stand him for the storms
And serve him for the humdrum and monotony,
And guide him amid sudden betrayals
And tighten him for slack moments.
Life is soft loam, be gentle, go easy,
And this, too, might serve him.
Life is full of polarities like this. When life is hard, we must be willing to persist. When life is soft, we must be wise enough to go easy.
Whether life is hard or soft is not just a matter of chance. David Cooperrider’s research in Appreciative Inquiry demonstrates that expectation determines experience. In other words, we get what we expect to get and see what we expect to see.
If you think writing is hard, you’ll find plenty of evidence to validate that belief.
What could happen if you entertained the possibility that writing can be easy?
Today’s post is shorter than usual, why not take the time you’d normally spend reading to write something just for fun, something quick and easy, something now…
Bane of Your Resistance 
I almost thought there was something I was doing wrong. I think writing is demanding and rewarding at the same time.
Anyway if things came our away all to easy in life we wouldn’t be able to appreciate.Right?
Through writing you are able to create. The feeling is quite fulfilling.
Thanks for the post.
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You’re welcome, Carl. And thanks for your comment. Your observation that we don’t appreciate things that come too easily reminds me of a child’s jigsaw puzzle. Of course an adult can put it together in a snap, but there’s little or no satisfaction in it. Creative people enjoy challenge.
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Expectation determines experience– it’s a matter of perception, isn’t it? Inspiring post. Thank you Rosanne.
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You’re welcome, Rawlingsrod. Thanks for letting me know you appreciated it.
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