Wright or Rong?

Doing the right thing is so difficult, isn't it? On the other hand, it is very easy to do the wrong thing. Even if you have your own ideals, principles, and a strong sense of what is right and wrong, sometimes it is still easier to go down the path of least resistance.

Say on a Sunday, this would be what I'll be thinking - 'Wowee... it's a nice day outside. I should go for a jog in the park, I really need the exercise. Then I'll need to wash the car, it hasn't been washed for months. The warm weather will dry both the car and the clothes within the day if I did the laundry today.'

Next thing you know, it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I'm still on the couch in my pyjamas watching serials on the computer with a plate laden with the bones of the deep fried chicken I just consumed for lunch. The path of least resistance...

Of course, some decisions we make are more serious than just what to do on a Sunday. The repercussions of the decisions are much more than just ending up with a flabby belly, a dirty car and a hamper full of dirty clothes. In my line of work, choosing to do what is wrong or even an unintentional slip may cause reputational damage and monetary loss involving figures I can't earn even in a lifetime. That is why we have policies for guidance at work.

So when my colleague put me in an akward position by asking me to co-sign a time sensitive transaction that would have breached the policies, I declined to sign and explained why I thought it was wrong. However, the transaction was put to me again with a new set of rationale trying to 'justify' the action, with a 'we're running out of time' line thrown in. This time I was swayed and I took the path of least resistance...

The transaction went smoothly, I did not doubt it would be otherwise. The point was not that we were lucky nothing went wrong, it was that I had my own principles, I thought I could adhere to it, but in the end I did not manage to. There is no easy way out of this, but to actually put up resistance to doing the wrong thing instead of taking the path of least resistance would be the right thing to do.