My roommate was mentioning to me the other day how if one door is open a row of 4, people will go out of their way to enter using it. People will go so far as to stand in a line to go through the open door. This got me thinking about human nature. Are we perhaps so desperate to do the least amount of work possible, that we end up doing more work in trying to avoid it?
The argument can be made that we should follow the path of least resistance just as easily as it can be said that we should not. The real question comes down to how someone decides that they want to live their life. Some people think that lists, organization, and planning ahead leads to a happier life in the long run. Others believe that going with the flow, and living in the moment, is the key to a happy life.
The "planners" often feel like they are avoiding stress and last minute changes by keeping everything written down and removing it from their mind. This decreases the worry that they may end up forgetting something and therefore missing out on something that they really wanted to do. It is more of a forward thinking mentality than the other group.
The "flow goers" don't often plan or write down that which must get done and prefer to just use their minds to keep track. The feel that they are avoiding stress because looking at a list of things to do is much more stressful than trying to keep track of it all in their head. If they forget to do something or go somewhere than it probably wasn't important anyway. They tend to be more present minded people than the other group.
I find that whether you belong to one group or another, we are all just trying to find the path of least resistance. "Water resist containment and seeks ways to move on a journey of its own inclination…our social conditioning tries to meet definite expectations and goals….however our intuitive compass wants to be free to follow its own unique course" (sid para. 2). We may have different ideas on what the best way to live is, but we are all trying to find our own "path of least resistance."
C.F.
Works Cited
Sid. "FLOW PSYCHOLOGY." FLOW PSYCHOLOGY. N.p., 6 Jan. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2016. <https://sidhere.wordpress.com/tag/path-of-least-resistance/>.
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