Warwick Life Strategies

Let me clarify. In no way do I mean that certain things we do are devoid of meaning. Of course, everything we do in life has meaning and purpose. What I’m referring to are those tasks (ie. household chores) that we feel obligated to do. Personally speaking, cleaning doesn’t stimulate my senses, ignite my passions or put spice in my life (however, if dusting and vacuuming do these things for you, please let me in on your secrets!!)

So what do we do with these ‘obligations’? We dread them, avoid them and procrastinate until it’s absolutely necessary that we tackle them.

In the previous post, Dann raised some wonderful points about incorporating things into your life to add to its meaning and to your enjoyment, such as finding new ways to exercise and making time for the things that you love to do. So today I’m asking myself if it’s possible to incorporate these interests into the jobs that we dislike. If yes, then how? How can we take some of our “required’s” and inject some “desired’s”?!

Follow me for a moment...what if in thinking about living a more balanced life, you decided to devote more time to improving your writing. Maybe you’re an aspiring author or poet or songwriter. Excellent. Now picture yourself at work where you’re required to do weekly write-ups for your supervisor...and you hate it. You dread this weekly writing exercise...but is it possible to change your perspective on this? Could you possibly see this obligatory task as an opportunity to brush up on your writing skills, use new vocabulary, or improve your grammar/creativity/conciseness/descriptiveness?

Here’s another scenario. If you love spending time outdoors and exercising (‘desireds’), can you change your perspective on cutting the grass or shoveling the snow (‘requireds’)? You could possibly see these tasks as time spent enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, some additional physical activity, or even as ‘alone’ time for thinking and reflecting. It’s really all a matter of perspective.

It’s doable. It’s possible. You can find new ways to look at old situations. Once you stop telling yourself that it’s a job you hate and you start to look at the possibilities found within each of these obligations, you’ll find that your chore might not be as ‘meaningless’ as you once thought.

Moving you forward, WLS