The Lent Diary - Feb 25/26

Today was garbage day. This means making sure that the garbage and recycling are out to the curb before 6:00am. It's only once a week. How hard can it be? And yet, there I was this morning at 5:30 putting on my warm coat and boots to drag two bags of garbage out to the curb and then come back for the grey bin. And I was cursing.

There's no doubt that there are things in life that are just not fun to do. What's fun about scooping kitty litter? What's fun about breaking down cardboard boxes so they fit into the recycle bin? What's fun about ironing wrinkled clothes?

Yet, we need to do these things to make our everyday life more enjoyable. If you never put out the garbage, how disgusting would your house be after a few weeks? This is what I like to call negative motivation. It isn't a task that makes me happier by doing it, it's a task that would make me unhappy if I didn't do it.

So today, on garbage day, I am contemplating how much of my world is driven by negative motivation and I'm going to work toward finding the positive in everyday tasks so that when something as mundane as bagging my newspapers for recycling comes up, I'll find it a much more pleasurable experience. 

Then maybe, just maybe, the next time I put out the garbage I'll be whistling instead of cursing.