I get it. That THING is coming up, and it SUCKS. Man, doing this thing is the pits. Sometimes, it can be a small thing, like doing the dishes. YUCK. Other Times it can be a tiny bit bigger, like getting up in the morning and being productive. Trust me, existing can be a pain at times with things like depression, abuse, anxiety, or disabilities. I know. So how do we continue to do the things that are just the worse at times? Easy, one step at a time. One day at a time.
I don't know what you expected me to say. Honestly, kid, do you think life is an easy thing? Do you think anything worth doing is easy? Not really. Loving people? Hard. Making friends? SO HARD. Working out? Honestly bleck! These things that we do daily, so seemingly normal, tend to be the very deeds that we struggle with the most. People tend to joke around about all of these small tasks, yet what happens when you begin to lose the humor in them?
We press on! One step at a time. Find a reason to do those dishes, even if it's the silliest and dumbest reason you can think of! Say,
"Each time I wash one of these dishes, I get one Chore token. When I collect 50 of them, I win a prize." Boom, prize money in the BANK (Depending on dishes.) Then come up with some silly prize, like 20 minutes of Netflix! If that doesn't work for you, you can use the reason I use when it comes to chores.
"If I don't do this, who else will?" That for whatever reason motivates the heck out of me to do the dishes. Thinking that these dishes will never be done by anyone else (which at times they won't) is a really nice way of making sure you end up doing them.
Find a reason to do the thing, to push on, even when the reasons seem to be stacked against doing the thing. Life is hard, but that doesn't mean that we have to forget to do the tasks and deeds that without completion, will inevitably make things more trialing.
A boss of mine and I once had a conversation about motivation and work ethic. I talked about how I could do a lot of good work when I was motivated, but I was having issues staying motivated at work. He told me this:
"Good work is never done by staying motivated. Anyone can do a lot of good work when they are motivated to do so. Good work ethic is made when someone takes the time to do the work, and keep at it, even when they are not motivated. The more you do that, the better your work becomes, and the better you become." That honestly changed my whole attitude about work and has affected me since, in regards to work and life.
How true is it that we only tend to try things when we are motivated? How true is it that the best work is the work we continue to do without motivation, the work that we find a reason to do? I'll let you figure that out for yourself. Yet I implore you to find a reason today, to live, to work, to do those darn dishes.
