I Cleaned My Car and I Liked It.
I did a thing today that brought me more satisfaction than I expected. I cleaned my car. ...Not the whole car, though. It's really dusty. But part of it.
I took our Xterra to the car wash to clean the outside with a pressure hose. Then, back at home, I scraped some stubborn pine tar off the windshield with a razor blade and scrubbed the residue. Inside I wiped dust off the dashboard and vacuumed the floor of the front seats. OMG, the floor mats were dusty. I shook one of them out at least 10 times, and even on the 10th vigorous shake there was still a huge cloud of dust coming out of it.
I did this work not expecting a satisfaction payoff. I did it as matter of obligation. It was a task I felt I had to do.
I mention that because it ties in to a strategy to motivate myself to do things. Instead of thinking of reasons why I have to do something- negative reasons involving words like "should" or "ought to"- I imagine the enjoyment or the positive experience I'll have once it's done. For example, I don't take a shower after exercising because "I stink and thus I ought to clean up" but instead because "I'll feel refreshed and so much more comfortable after a shower."
Cleaning the car, though, was a task for which I hadn't thought of a positive outcome. It's a thing I did out of obligation, a "should". Thus I was pleasantly surprised this evening when I went out for a short trip with the car and noticed how good it looks. Oh, it's not showroom-new or anything like that. But with clean windows, a clean dash, and no more musty-dusty smell inside it no longer felt like the same 13 year old vehicle with over 125,000 miles.
I took our Xterra to the car wash to clean the outside with a pressure hose. Then, back at home, I scraped some stubborn pine tar off the windshield with a razor blade and scrubbed the residue. Inside I wiped dust off the dashboard and vacuumed the floor of the front seats. OMG, the floor mats were dusty. I shook one of them out at least 10 times, and even on the 10th vigorous shake there was still a huge cloud of dust coming out of it.
I did this work not expecting a satisfaction payoff. I did it as matter of obligation. It was a task I felt I had to do.
I mention that because it ties in to a strategy to motivate myself to do things. Instead of thinking of reasons why I have to do something- negative reasons involving words like "should" or "ought to"- I imagine the enjoyment or the positive experience I'll have once it's done. For example, I don't take a shower after exercising because "I stink and thus I ought to clean up" but instead because "I'll feel refreshed and so much more comfortable after a shower."
Cleaning the car, though, was a task for which I hadn't thought of a positive outcome. It's a thing I did out of obligation, a "should". Thus I was pleasantly surprised this evening when I went out for a short trip with the car and noticed how good it looks. Oh, it's not showroom-new or anything like that. But with clean windows, a clean dash, and no more musty-dusty smell inside it no longer felt like the same 13 year old vehicle with over 125,000 miles.