Most of you know by now that my six-year-old black lab, Scarlett, is having a boring summer.

She tore a muscle in her back leg a few months ago, and since then she's been going to physical therapy and slowly getting back to normal. But it's going to be a while until she's cleared to run and swim and jump—all the things she'd rather be doing, basically. For now, all she's allowed to do is walk.

This shouldn't be a big deal because most dogs love walks. But not mine. Even in colder weather she's not much of a fan (Walking just for the sake of it? With no other goal in mind? That's insanely dull. And on 97 degree days? That's tantamount to torture).

Which leaves me in a pickle. She's got to exercise so that she doesn't go stir-crazy. But when I take her out, she'll only walk for 10 minutes and then turn around. Or she'll lay prone on the path and refuse to move. Or she'll roll over and play dead.

And trust me. There is NO WAY to get a 70-pound animal to do what you want if they refuse. I've tried dragging, pushing, bribing, and cajoling. There's no amount of force that works on this dog.

So, I've had to outsmart her. I've taken to enlisting friends to walk with me, when I can ("pack walks" are magically entertaining compared to just me, it turns out). I pick random locations in my area and drive there to let her explore a new place. Sometimes we walk home and I have to go back and get the car later.

This battle with her has been a really good example of something I've tried to master for a long time, but clearly I'm still learning—the path of least resistance works SO much better than force.

So, on this week's blog I'm talking about the ways in which we make life harder than it needs to be, and why doing the "easy" thing is far more productive (and not at all lazy).

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