Larger Than Life
Blog – 1-31-18
Today I want to look at another little lesson I learned from our blizzard last week.
I have a storage room in my basement which is the “catch-all” room, the place I put things I don’t want to deal with. I throw things in there and shut the door behind me as fast as I can! My guess is some of you have a similar room in your home.
I try to keep up with it periodically, I really do, but it always finds a way to get completely out of control, especially during the holidays.
This year it was worse than ever before.
Every time I opened the door to this increasingly scary place, I felt a sense of unease. I attempted in vain to avert my eyes from the piles that were growing before me. My plan when I went in there was to get in and out as quickly as possible as I told myself repeatedly that I would get to it “someday.”
Ohhh, that nebulous word someday!
As I waited for “someday” to come, this seemingly simple task started growing into a monstrous, all-day project. The mere thought of heading down to my basement and tackling that room made me shudder. Those piles in my storage room became larger than life as I totally and completely lost my perspective on the situation.
After watching a few movies with my husband during the blizzard, we both decided that we needed to do at least one productive thing that day. He needed to clean up a leak in a corner of the storage room, and me, well I had those piles calling my name.
We grudgingly headed to our respective tasks, fearing it would take the better part of the day.
As I started pulling things off the stack and putting them away, I started gaining momentum. Hey, this wasn’t really that bad. Everything had a home, I just needed to put it where it belonged. I got excited when I could actually see the floor again!
And the best part, we were done in a little over an hour. Seriously!
How often do we do that to ourselves? We fuss and fret about things until they become overwhelming. Things on our To Do list that we despise – cleaning the toilet, purging our closet, cleaning our storage room – become larger than life. Over and over we think about it, dread it, and our perspective gets totally out of whack. We end up spending more energy and time avoiding the task than actually doing the task itself.
Instead of focusing on how much we hate the task, we need to focus on how good it’s going to feel once we get the task completed.
We do that with so many things in our lives. We try to deal with painful or hard issues by simply avoiding them, thinking they will go away on their own, hoping a magic fairy will come in and just take care of it. But the truth we all know is, they never go away on their own. That pile in my storage room was not going to magically disappear. I had to face it, embrace it, and deal with it. And it was actually no big deal once I actually took that first step and started.
What are you making larger than life on your journey right now? Is it a task that lies before you that you keep putting off? Is it a situation at work that you’re avoiding? Is it a confrontation with a family member or friend that keeps nagging at you?
I want to encourage you, my friend, whatever it is, take a deep breath, talk to a friend about it if you need to, and put the situation in its proper perspective. It’s probably not nearly as big a deal as you think it is. And I guarantee you this, the longer you put it off, the bigger it will seem.
Choose today to start!
Choose today to face it and deal with it, knowing the satisfaction you will feel and sense of accomplishment when you have it completed will be enormous! When I open the door to my storage room now, I can’t help but smile. It feels so good, so cleansing in a way, to have it in order. I feel a sense of pride rather than condemnation and a sense of peace rather than a sense of urgency.
If you’re living in that place of urgency and unease right now, I encourage you – no, I implore you! – go take care of it. Face it. Deal with it. Start! Chances are it’s going to be a lot easier than you think.
And remember, when you get the task completed, you’re going to feel such a sense of relief!
Hugs and love,
Jill
Comments