Although we all have dreams and ambitions, brilliant ideas and great choices for things to do, mostly we just do the minimum, or the most habitual.
This is annoying at the end of the day, when the work we meant to do, the things we thought we wanted to do, the way we expected things to happen, didn’t get done, didn’t happen or weren’t manifested in any way.
We didn’t even change our minds. It all just stayed the same. The car still needs a wash, the dust is still flying about inside the house and the sink is still full of yesterday’s washing up.

It’s terribly depressing.

If only it were possible to just think about it and it would all miraculously be done. Or some little fairy did it all for us, without us even having to leave out a saucer of milk.
A housekeeper would be great. Most of us can’t afford, or do not even want, a cleaner or housekeeper. But we also do not want to do all the hard daily slog every day. Not at all. The very idea makes me pull a face.

If only there were some fairy godmother way of having it all done without having to do it.

So we continually sit at the beginning of the whole pile of daily chores, even if they were yesterday’s chores, and they never ever get done. It’s never ever finished. We are never ever in that place where it’s all clean and tidy, pristine and sparkling.

Perhaps it’s us. Damn, let’s face it, it’s us.

I’ve discovered a trick that works for me, aside from the obvious one, which is getting so angry that we have let it get so bad that we are forced, by our own disgust at our mess, to deal with at least the absolute minimum of the mess and dirt and delayed actions.

And we KNOW that this would catapult us into the state of having all the slog done.

But we have to know that it’s never going to happen. There is no fairy we can give milk to. There is no fairy godmother with a sparkly wand to charm it all right. We have to do it ourselves, no matter how unappealing.

The trick I use is this.

I imagine how happy I would be if it were all done. Well, maybe not all of it. Perhaps half of it. No, not even that. Let’s really focus. How about just this one thing that really, really annoys me?

And I step into godmother mode, into the magic wand mode myself. I am suddenly flitting about the place doing magical things. Well, a magical thing. With pleasure, as I like the RESULT.
So I do it, no matter how filthy I have let it get. And when I do finally do it, I notice that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, and it takes about five seconds to do. Well, that’s how it feels.

And I really enjoy the result.

I enjoy results.

Look at how sparkling clean it is. Look at how pretty it is. Great. I have a matching pair of clean socks in my drawer. There is no pile of stinking laundry. I can find my keys as they have been put on the key hook.

As I’m a very visual person, it comes down to enjoying the view. I like a good view.
And I have a sensitive nose, so when the house is polished up or dusted, or the loo is scrubbed, I enjoy the smell so much more than the stink or mess.
And I really like not falling over piles of shoes left in the hall. I also prefer my plants alive and healthy rather than dying of thirst.

The slog can turn into a ritual of beautification.

Even getting the dreaded paperwork in order has value, as the whole mess is out of my head because it’s done. The slog is over.

And now, when I decide to do something fun that has nothing to do with this, my head is clear.
No nagging list of chores. No guilt about the mess. No worries about where things might have got lost.
There is so much more room in there for creative and interesting thoughts, even if they are, to begin with, thoughts about the slog in the first place.

This trick works for me.

See how lovely it can be, and then act on that vision. The slog is over because you are creating something beautiful and easy to live with.

Try it.