Which Chores do You HATE the Most?
Ask any large group of people “Which Chores do You Hate the Most?” and you’ll find yourself looking into a sea of raised hands. As you begin to call on people to share their answer, you’ll get a lot of answers like folding laundry, dusting, ironing, vacuuming, window cleaning, dealing with the garbage, changing the sheets, sorting the recycling, mowing the lawn, cooking, cleaning hard-surface floors, doing the dishes, shoveling snow, along with what some consider the worst chore ever: cleaning the toilet. After an individual shares which chore they hate the most, if you poll the audience to see how many others hate that same chore to some degree you will again be looking into a sea of raised hands. But a simple shift in perspective can change all that.
It’s critical for the person leading the discussion to ask one more question after seeing all the people that hate a specific chore to some degree. The game-changing question that needs to be asked is “Is there anyone here that likes, or maybe even loves, this chore that everyone seems to hate. If presented correctly, there always seems to be at least one person who embraces a chore that everyone else seems to despise.
“Folding laundry is one of my favorite tasks each week. When I’m folding the clothes of other family members, I focus on all the things I love about them. When I’m folding my own, I focus on how I feel each morning when I’m putting on my clean and fresh clothes. Nothing makes me happier than folding clothes.” This is where you go back to the audience and ask if anyone might consider changing the way they feel about folding laundry. The gears in their mind turn rapidly as this extremely different perspective was just presented on a subject, they were so certain about, just prior to hearing how someone else’s thought process perceives a common chore. It’s almost like the individual substituted the word opportunity for chore.
Other’s share “Oh, I just love vacuuming. Love, love, love. When I’m done it looks like a work of art with different shapes and patterns created by the movement of the vacuum.” “I utilize the diamond shape method of mowing the lawn. Every five days I mow and rotate horizontal, vertical, angled left, and angled right. I even bought a drone so I could take pictures from directly above. I love the way it looks.” “At our house, we have a prayer request board where we place all the names of people we know that need our prayers. It’s why I love to iron. I set my ironing board up in front of the prayer request board, look at a name, pray for that person while ironing two items, and then look at the next name and continue until I’ve prayed intentionally for each person on the board. If there’s still items left over, I pray for my family and friends. I struggle to find words to accurately describe how I feel when my ironing is completed, but the feeling is incredible. I love when I have ironing to do.”
I can provide an example of someone who loves any chore that nearly everyone else hates. Each time I hear someone explain why they like a chore so much it forces me to re-examine my own thought processes related to that chore. I’m embarrassed to say that much of my dislike is due to “herd mentality influence” where I’ve heard so many people share how much they hate chores, I never even gave each chore a fighting chance to be embraced and enjoyed. And I’d like to believe that I have a creative mind. Especially when it comes to the subject of chores, which happen to be things that are going to occur on a regular basis whether we like them or not. It doesn’t help that some sources define the word chore, when used as a noun, as a (unpleasant) task. Now, why’d they have to put the word unpleasant in parenthesis in front of task? Couldn’t they have left it up to us to determine whether a specific task was unpleasant or not?
Chores are something that impact all of us throughout the entirety of our lives. I wouldn’t be opposed to having at least one class during our K-12 education devoted to how we can perceive chores for the rest of our life. Maybe then we could at least consider the possibility that there are mental and emotional benefits that occur while performing a chore if we’re able to connect a positive perspective to them.
So…How about YOU? Are you willing to pause for a moment and consider how you can take every chore and associate value for your life while you’re performing the chore? Can you consider your current feelings (hate) for a chore and at least see if you can view it from the positive side (love)? Here’s a worthwhile throwdown challenge for you to have some fun with. I challenge you to pick a chore that you’re willing to claim you love, create evidence (the WHY) explaining what preforming this chore does for you mentally and emotionally, and post your perspective on social media. You’ll be amazed at the comments your post will solicit. Then pick a second chore and perform the challenge on social media again. Keep it up and you’ll soon discover that added value has entered every chore you perform, each time you perform it. This is life-changing stuff. Remember, Hey…I Believe In YOU! GiddyUp!
Paul White is a Guest Columnist, Author, and Speaker. You can contact him with your positive vibes at 1deepwriter@gmail.com and find more information at www.theanswerdiscovery.com.