Pressin' On

We bought and moved into our house this weekend!

Most of our stuff was still packed in boxes in anticipation for this move, but we still had a lot of stuff that we had unpacked that needed to be re-packed.

I LOATHE packing. And unpacking. So, packing while knowing that I'm just going to turn around and unpack is, well, loathsome.

HH took the day off on Friday so we could do the final walk through, purchase the house, and then pack up.

I have always packed up almost all of our stuff because HH is busy with other moving preparations or at work. This time he was able to help a little, but I was still orchestrating since I am now a moving expert.

For the first several hours of this I would pack half of a box and then complain for about 15 minutes about how much I HATE packing.

Progress was pretty slow at this rate. Finally, we put the kids to bed and HH was able to help more and we got almost all the packing done in a couple of hours.

Later that night he thanked me for all I had done. I accepted his appreciation but then lamented again on how much I hate packing. He made a comment about how I had at least done it without complaining and I was actually about to accept his praise! Then I realized he was joking.

And it wasn't until that moment that I realized just how much I had complained that day.

And here I am complaining some more!

But this time I have a point.

The point is, sometimes life is just hard. Sometimes it requires a lot of yucky, undesirable, miserable work. But we still have to do it.

As always though, we have choices. Even if choosing not to really isn't an option, we still get to choose how we do it.

We can choose to whine and complain and moan about our situation and work. That makes us all the more aware of how awful it is. And, in most cases, makes it take longer. And it makes you less fun to be around.

And there is pretty much zero joy in whining and complaining--especially while doing something loathsome.

OR...

You can just lower your head and get 'er done. Keep on keepin' on. Keep on truckin'. Cowboy up.

That's pretty much all the back-woodsey phrases I know about that topic. But I think you get the point.

So, whatever it is, I promise that if you choose to just do it without complaining (not even silently complaining to yourself!), it won't sap so much joy from your life. And maybe you'll even find a little joy in the work itself.

You might just find yourself amazing yourself at how awesome you are at fitting a ton of stuff into a tiny box, like a perfect jigsaw puzzle.

And if you can convince someone as amazing as HH to come help you out (again, no complaints from you will make this much more likely to happen), well, then you might just find a lot of joy in doing the work together. Because everything is more fun with a friend. Especially one named Hot Honey.

Well, it is.

And so, I better end this and get back to him. They can't switch our internet over to the house until Tuesday, so I'm stuck blogging away at our old apartment. On the floor. Not very comfy.

What are your thoughts here? How do you motivate yourself to keep going when you really have no desire to keep going? How do you stop yourself from complaining when those complaints just keep readily coming? Do you hate packing as much as I do?

Let's just hope I can remember all my sage advice while I unpack everything.

Yay!