I watched a family member push through a tough experience. With little self pity, he simply withstood the challenge, and now he's almost at the other side.
I'm thinking about his example as I embark on a bit of a challenge myself--a commitment to completing a number of tasks that are not my favorite, but tasks, nevertheless will position me for better work and contribution. Sometimes I resist what's best for me as if it were a mac truck speeding down the road in my direction. Why do we resist what's best for us?
The resistance first comes from the challenge--it's difficult to complete tasks that are difficule or somewhat boring for us, but it's often necessary to embrace tasks like that. I find that people who do this well are people who grew up with allegiance to good routines. Some of us who had less routines as children, struggle with establishing those routines as adults.
The resistance also comes from my "all or none" brain. I love to fully invest myself in something--I can go a straight 24-hours with a task if I'm committed to that task, but that kind of investment generally leaves you without energy for the good routine tasks of life--doing the hard work demands good energy.
Distraction can also lead you away from the less desirable, needed tasks--if you allow yourself to continually be distracted by other aims and endeavor, you simply will run out of time to do what you know you need to do.
Of course, if you keep resisting a task it may be that the task is not right for you, but in general, we resist the tasks that are necessary by tough. Humans tend to lean towards what's easy and interesting rather than what's difficult and somewhat dull for them.
Success with challenging tasks in the past has come with clearly defining the routine I'll follow, purposely putting the distractions aside, and setting some assessment dates. I've also achieved success when I've enlisted the support of experts and others who can help me with the tough tasks and providing myself with an incentive too such as if I accomplish _________, I'll __________________.
So today as I look ahead to a sixth month mark which includes a few wonderful summer outdoor adventures, I'm embracing a few undesirable, but necessary tasks. Let's see where I end up. Onward.