Mundane Mountaintops

A couple weeks ago I had myself a to-do list. This wasn't a normal everyday list. This was the list of a bunch of annoying tasks that I always put off. Find someone to service the broken thingy. Pay that bill where the online payment platform is super hard to use. Write that email that really should go out yesterday. Plus a lot more.

 

I put it all down on paper and then I ate my breakfast.

 

Then I looked back at my list. Hm, which item on this list looks the least distasteful? What can I tackle first? 

 

The answer was obvious. I don’t want to do ANY of that stuff.

 

But this list was that stuff I had already been putting off. 

 

I looked at the list again. I really don’t want to do it.

 

Then this funny thought came into my mind. You don’t want to do it? How is that at all relevant?

 

Suddenly all items on the list that were a moment ago equally distasteful were now somehow equally…neutral. Not unpleasant tasks. Just words on a page. Any annoyingness somehow just vanished. It was weird. And awesome. I almost laughed.

 

I looked at those items. Since they were all suddenly equal, I just started at the top and ticked them off, one by one until the whole list—all twelve items–were DONE and crossed off with my pencil.

 

I looked at the clock. Only 30 minutes had passed. 

 

Wait, what just happened? I walked around the rest of the day like I was at the summit of a mountain. The views were incredible.

 

I’m trying to channel that same sort of thinking every day now. I know, I know. You all figured this out eons ago. Heck, I’ve even been teaching it to my children since forever (“I don’t want to!” “You don’t have to want to. But I still expect you to.”) But I can learn slowly sometimes when it comes to annoying phonecalls and pesky tasks. 

 

What’s happening with your mundane details?