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Enjoy the Task at Hand

Updated: Apr 27, 2023

I got this bit of advice many years ago from Jack Canfield’s Self-Esteem and Peak Performance audio program. On its surface, this may sound like I am telling you to force yourself to enjoy something. I'm not suggesting that at all.


One aspect of this is a shift in focus from everything going on in my life and/or all of the tasks I have to do to just the single task I am working on at the moment. I can’t do everything at once, or deal with everything going on all at once, but I can do this one thing and worry about the rest later. That helps reduce stress in the moment. Since life is made up of little moments, it therefore makes for a less stressful life overall.


The second thing this practice does for me is remind me that there is probably something enjoyable in every task, if I just take the time to look for it. In fact, what makes most tasks unpleasant is that we feel like we have to do them or that they are getting in the way of something we’d rather be doing. Think about it. We call tasks around the house “chores;” we go to “work;” we have civic “duties.” It is no wonder that we don’t look forward to any of this stuff. And, yet, it makes up most of our lives!


Imagine how much happier you’d be if you could look for and focus on the joy that could be found in these daily activities instead of the inconvenience. For instance, I may not like to clean house, but I can take pride in doing a good job; enjoy arranging things just right; treasure the memories in those pictures I am dusting, etc. I may hate getting interrupted by tech support calls, but I do enjoy talking to my customers and their appreciation when I help them out of a jam. Focusing on those things makes the interruptions a lot easier to take.


As long as you have to do all of the tasks in your life anyway, why not try to enjoy them as you do them? It doesn’t take any more effort and makes your life journey much more pleasant!


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