Why is it So Hard to Get Things Done?

Truthfully, we feel too much. 

If we didn't care about how tiring or dreadful this or that task was, or how time-consuming and tedious, or scary and risky, we would get a lot more things done.  But we care too much, and because we care, our feelings become a sort of monster that steps in front of our active self and stops us from doing the things we need to get done. 

Consider a computer.  A computer gets everything done that you ask of it, unless there's something wrong with it, of course.  But a healthy computer will perform everything you want, and it won't hesitate (except to process) nor whine.  It will just do it.  That's because it has no feelings for anything it does and so it does them all.  No task is better than another or easier.  It is all the same to the computer.  And because of that, computers accomplish a lot.  Consider how much your computer does each day.  But a healthy able-bodied human being, who could hypothetically do everything he tells himself, often doesn't get stuff done.   Instead, he hesitates and delays, hems and haws, and all because he allows a big monster named Dread to get in his way.

I am very well acquainted with the monster Dread and his intimidating, seemingly all-consuming presence.  Whenever I think of doing a task, he comes in between me and the task, and roars at me horribly, showing his frightful yellow teeth.  He threatens me with his rock hard muscles and his giant club.  And suddenly whatever I was planning to do seems most horrible and unpleasant.  So horrible and unpleasant that I often run away so that I don't have to deal with him.  But the horrible thing is, putting the task aside doesn't get rid of Dread.  He's still there in the corner of my eye, yelling and taunting, and it seems rather that each time I postpone doing something, Dread renews himself, becoming bigger and stronger, so that I am cowering under him and unable to do anything for fear of him. 

Only lately have I begun to realize that Dread has no power over me.  I am the one who has power over him, actually.  Because I am the one who created him in the first place.  So I can make him small or tiny, or silly and laughable, and I can even make him cease to exist if I like.  That is the power I have over Dread.  For I gave him life, so I can very easily take it away.

Case in point:  This weekend I cleaned the stove.  I didn't have to clean the stove, but it has been getting rather yucky with oil and grease stains all over it, and I have not cleaned it for a while.  It was one of my goals this year to clean it and when I wrote that goal, a vision of Dread went through my mind, and each time I thought about it, I saw Dread too.  But this weekend, I decided to clean the stove.  And I just did it.  I didn't consider what a terrible task it was, or how yucky.  I just considered what I needed to do to get it clean, and I did it.  And I put on some fun music while I worked.  And I enjoyed myself.  Now my stove is clean, cleaner than I've ever had it, and it looks beautiful!  And I get to enjoy looking at it and using it.  As I think back on it, I marvel at how easy it was to get this chore done when I had been dreading it all this time.  But at the moment I wanted to get it done, I didn't let Dread interfere.  I put him aside, even bringing in his arch nemesis Fun, and because of that I accomplished my goal.  I just did it, without considering my feelings for it. 

Each time I push aside Dread, I have realized that I often have a much better time of it, and it actually makes getting stuff done a breeze, and an enjoyable breeze at that.  I often feel much better about myself for doing it, because I kept a promise to myself, and it makes me feel like I accomplished something great (even if it's tiny).  It makes me happy and not just at that moment, but every time I see what I've accomplished, every time I see my nice clean stove.
 
In actuality, it's not the chore or having to do it that punishes us -- it's ourselves.  We punish ourselves by thinking terrible thoughts and making things harder than they really are or need to be.  If Sisyphus had enjoyed rolling a large boulder up a hill, and then watching it fall before it reached the top, would it still be considered a horrible punishment?  No.  It's how he felt about it that made it an onerous task vs an easy one. 

Indeed, perhaps the best way to free ourselves of dread is to choose to bring more fun into our lives, into whatever it is we are doing.  That way, instead of letting dread making us feel awful, we can enjoy just that much more of our lives.