What Happens When You Fix Your Repetitive Problems?
One word: Relief!
In the early morning, my husband, still in bed, heard the trash collectors in the street.
“That’s the rubbish being picked up,” he said, and I understood the covert message behind his words.
Get the dustbin in before passers-by empty their trash into it.
My attempt to avoid the day’s first problem brought up another, though. Which trash bin belongs to us?
I’m not sure, so I often let my neighbors gather their bins, identical to mine apart from minute numbers listed on one side, before dragging my own onto my property.
Only one of the minor problems I let slip by that repeated like a stuck record. Indeed, it’s incredible how many teeny yet significant glitches I overlooked because they were tricky, uncomfortable, or easy to neglect in favor of a more enjoyable task.
A huge unwanted bag of dog food sat in the walk-in pantry, for instance. It was in the way and took up unnecessary space. Despite knowing this, we left it there for months.
We bought the kibble at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in case our local pet shop ran out of supplies. When we gave a handful to our dog, however, he ate it and wasn’t well afterward. Let’s just say he had digestive issues.
Each time I reached the pantry, the kibble got on my nerves. I told myself we might need it in an emergency. We wouldn’t, though, because our dog couldn’t eat it.
Then there was the overfilled plant pot stuffed with an ancient poinsettia and a strange self-seeded alien that stole nourishment and water from the soil. I noted its presence each day while busy and got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I considered one day, I would sort it out.
The truth, though, is one day would never come, and it was more helpful to tackle such chores immediately. It felt easier to leave the bin outside and let strangers thoughtlessly drop their garbage in it, but it wasn’t in the long run. After all, I had to reach into its depths to retrieve the empty pop bottles to recycle and other less clean items and sort through them. I had to lean over the annoying kibble bag and find space for other needed items around it, and my poinsettia grew weaker every day.
These, and hundreds of other teeny irritations, induced minor frustration all the time, and it occurred to me that it was time to deal with them.
Of course, a stream of unhelpful self-talk flowed when I decided to manage every problem as it happened.
“But it will take so long!” And “It’s so unpleasant,” and “why not leave it and hope it goes away?”
My resistant inner self whined like a hormonal, rebellious teen who didn’t want to follow the house rules. But I got on with the job, anyway.
I placed our house name on the side of the bin, ditched the kibble, re-potted the poinsettia, and planted the alien plant in a flower border outside. A sense of satisfaction drifted over me, and ease filled my bones.
What a relief!
Since then, I’ve tackled each problem I spot rather than let it continue.
If I see a mess, and it’s annoying, I clean it. If I note something needs fixing, I fix it or take it to be mended. If I recognize I’m taking a shortcut, instead of managing a task well, I stop and do it properly.
I’ve never been lazy. I have a thousand terrific excuses for not dealing with these mini-problems, and they all sound feasible. As a busy individual, I fooled myself into believing I would get around to them and they could wait.
Realistically, though, mini-problems get bigger when postponed. It’s also faster to get them out of the way than wait until they amass. Doubtless, since none of us are perfect, you might leave teeny problems rather than manage them too, and just like me, you’ll discover life improves if you handle them now.
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