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Are there tasks that don’t make you happy, but you still need to get them done? Do you look for various excuses just to avoid doing those tasks? If that little voice in you thoughts answers “yes”, then this episode is for you! Here you will finally understand why you don’t like certain tasks and find some effective ways of enjoying them despite everything. Ready to improve your life? Let’s go!
What you’ll discover
- What are the reasons we don’t like some tasks
- The benefits of changing your perspective
- How to change the negative approaches you’re using
- The key to enjoying any task
Quotes, keynotes
- Do you remember the moments of anger while doing some tasks? When you feel bad about doing this task right now, or in general, you don’t want to do this task. And you can’t wait to finish the task. Negative emotions inside you are boiling, and you continue performing the task till the end. This is about the moments when you know your final goal, but the process itself causes bad emotions.
- Why don’t we like some tasks? What are the possible reasons? Sometimes, we just don’t like the process of a task, or we don’t have enough time to do it. Also, we may estimate the task in a wrong way, or feel that we have nothing to do with it, or the results of the task wouldn’t bring any satisfaction.
- When doing an unpleasant task, you burn yourself and waste your time being in a negative mood. Do you realize this? You will complete the task, but all those hours that you spent on it will be wasted. We’ve just identified the problem. And the problem is: when you do something, and you don’t have any pleasure out of it, in most cases, you waste your time.
- The key is to focus on the process, not on the result, not on the timing, not blaming someone other who forced you to do this task, but on the process itself. And by doing that, you can change a negative approach and be in a better mood while finishing the task. “Is it for real?” you can ask.
- Society tells us all the time that we should focus on the result. We should be result-oriented. All we do is for a result, for achieving something. Have you achieved something? Are you proud of something? Why are you better than others? What marks do you have? How speedy are you? Have you used your chance and became a successful person? All those phrases, all those questions, all those calls are a single social lush that whips you, that enchases you from your dreams, from being yourself. Don’t you feel that pressure? Don’t you feel that you should compete for something you don’t want? Then stop doing that! The solution is really simple: instead of focusing on the result, focus on the process.
- What is good about focusing on the process? First of all, you can find new interesting things about yourself. And this is really useful for atomic preferences concept (from Episode 12) – the concept that will help you find yourself. The second benefit is that you can improve your skills by focusing on improvements instead of accomplishing that as quickly as possible. If you’ve done this task several times already, you can focus on improvements to do the task quicker and better next time. Because whenever you do this task for several hours, let’s say two hours, imagine how much time it is to improve your skills.
- When you think about the process, and you are focused on the process, you don’t focus on negative emotions at this moment, because your brain is busy with the process. And there is no space for negative emotions which burn you out.
- By enjoying the process, you’re more likely to have success in result, or at least a better quality in comparison to the situations when you want to complete the task very quickly.
- But how can you change that negative approach? What are the possible tools or tricks that could help you to switch? There are several, actually. First of all, you need to slow down. Does the pressure from understanding that you should do this task quickly help you to complete it? It doesn’t! What it gives is extra pressure. Stop tracking the clock all the time! Another tip, try to accept the situation as it is. You are doing the task right now, and that’s it. No need to return to the reasons why should you do this task. If you don’t like the routine, try to think why exactly you don’t like it and how you can find at least some tiny element that you like in the process. Finally, if you don’t like the results of your doing, try to find more information about the process to have better results. And every next time you’ll improve yourself and start doing better. And even that sense of improvement, of understanding that you are becoming better, will bring you joy!
- The idea of focusing on a process is about not putting too much pressure on yourself with expectations of the result. Does it prolong your way to success? Possibly yes. But it makes your way to success more pleasant. When you start the process, you probably have some plan of how to reach the goal. If you have it, you know what routines should be done, and you can concentrate on the process instead of thinking about the goal all the time. Sometimes, you can synchronize with the plan and then return to the process and enjoy it. When doing something, there is only you and the process, even if other people are involved as well. It’s only up to you to decide whether you want to enjoy the process, or you just want to please someone else by delivering a result. But in both of those cases, you spent almost the same amount of time and your energy, but only while focusing on the process, you become happier. And just think about it: how many tasks during the day you usually complete and how better your life could be after changing the approach of doing tasks.
The task for the next week
- Step one: select three different tasks that you plan to do during the next week, or you know you will be involved in them. Better if those tasks are not bringing you any joy right now.
- The second step: analyze why you don’t like those tasks. Please, use ideas from this episode.
- The third step: using tools and techniques from this episode try to rethink your approach. What could be changed to make it more enjoyable for you? Step four: start implementing that approach.
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