Don’t you just love coming home after a long day of work just to get started on all your nightly tasks?
You walk into the house and starting preparing dinner, maybe get some laundry started, clean up dinner, mow the lawn, get the kids ready for bed, fold that now-done laundry, get ready for bed and oh wait! You forgot it’s trash night!
Yeah, it really doesn’t get much more exciting than that right?!
For many of us, we dread whatever chores we “have to” do. In many cases, we just skip them all together, creating a pile of to-do’s when Saturday comes
You definitely make that specific night a little easier but at what cost? Now instead of enjoying your Saturday you have to spend hours cleaning and catching up. Then, when you get done with those tasks, you want nothing more than to just order takeout and lounge on the couch for whatever time you have left of the day.
The reality is that there is no avoiding all these obligations. You have to do them now or you have to do them later.
This is something that I have struggled with my whole life. From when I was a kid and through most of my young adult life, I have always just hated any chores thrown my way.
Even though I still have plenty of work to do on myself, I have come a long way. There are now chores that I’ve learned to really enjoy (and yes, I do mean enjoy). This isn’t the case for everything but progress is the goal right?
I am constantly getting better and it really stems from me simply tweaking my mindset towards all of these tasks.
Here’s some simple ideas:
Make it something you “want to” do rather than “have to” do.
When I cook for my family, it is something that I have learned to love. Most days I don’t even see it as a chore anymore. When cooking, my goal is to make food that my wife and kids are going to love. I never follow a recipe exactly and simply have fun with it. When I see everyone enjoying my meal, it brings me joy.
While going through our nightly routine with the kids, I enjoy everything I do for my kids because I know I’m creating healthy routines for them.
These are just easy samples but you can do this with so many tasks. It simply may just take some brainstorming and evaluating the benefits of the tasks you perform. At the end of the day, most chores create a positive outcome.
Use your labors as a way to clear your mind.
Once again, I believe this is another easy one to apply.
When I do mow the lawn or do any other yard work, I love how lost in my own mind I can become. It’s a labor that you can do and just sift through all the thoughts that are trapped up in your head. Sometimes I will use it as an opportunity to listen to some self-help podcasts or if my mind is racing, I will use it as an opportunity to sort of meditate. You may even also say that my meditation during those tasks often go better than when I actually sit and traditionally meditate
This is something that is so easy to consider when you are doing any repetitive tasks. If you don’t have to think about what you are doing, why not use that time to at least relax your mind while your body does all the work.
Consider the fact that this is also for your health and success.
Tons of people that discuss mental wellbeing or success always mention that the first thing you should do in the morning is make your bed.
When you make your bed first thing in the morning, you mark a task complete for the day and create a domino effect. Essentially, the idea is that you become proud of doing this task, which encourages you to keep doing more and more throughout the day.
It’s funny that I mention this because that is one task that I am absolutely horrible at. But who knows, maybe I will start that tomorrow since it is fresh on my mind?
Besides just creating a domino effect though, any chore that you do should have a positive impact on your health. The more chores you push off and let pile up, the more stress and depression you will receive from your environment. Living in a messy house can cause all kinds of concerns.
With me developing my love for cooking, I also have prioritized making sure that the kitchen is always clean and I rarely procrastinate it. When I see dishes in the sink or clutter on the counter, I think to myself, “this is only going to make making the next meal stressful and take all joy from it.”
You can also think of it this way. Just like the making your bed creates a positive domino effect, pushing off tasks can create a negative domino effect.
Lastly, committing yourself to your labors helps improve you and your family’s image.
I know that when our house is not the cleanest, my wife will become extremely stressed on the mentioning of people coming over. We aren’t the people to obsess over our image, but we don’t want to leave others with a bad image of us either.
Your house can really be a depiction of who you and your family are as people.
Just think about when you go to someone else’s house. Whether you think you do or not, you are forming an opinion about them based on how their house looks. This isn’t a bad thing but it is a simple reality. Cleaning up and decorating your house is very similar to picking out your clothes or getting a haircut.
I should also note to not make this an unhealthy obsession either. Over-obsessing can be just as unhealthy as not caring. You simply want to care in general.
To end this blog, just remember that there are ways to find joy doing any sort of labor. Just play with it and try to find healthy, fun ways to do what you need to do.
The idea should really be to just eliminate your procrastinations and just always keep in mind all the positives that will come.
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