I love the results, it’s the discipline I don’t like

Whether it’s knowing exactly where my money is going, eating healthy, having a clean house, or the exhilaration of climbing that trail, I won’t lie, I love the results. Honestly, sometimes, I hate the discipline to get those results.

Truth be told, I would rather sit and contemplate all the avenues of getting the task done the quickest, easiest, and fastest. The hardest part for me is motivation. I really don’t mind hard work. I like to get my hands dirty. I like the sweat and can handle the blisters. But when it comes to the discipline required to get going and keep going, I’m at a loss. So, whatever the task, I look for the motivation to keep me moving forward.

When we lived in Hawaii, we were renting a cute little house on a hill. It just so happens that the pretty island is made of red dirt, and the builders of that cozy little home chose to put in white carpet. Oh, and we have three dogs. Red dirt, three dogs, and white carpet equals the perfect recipe for pink carpet. Actually, it’s more like orange, tinged with pink, and dotted with brown spots. Anyway, it wasn’t white anymore. Vacuuming didn’t pull out the orangey-pinkish-brown stain. So, steam cleaning every year was a necessity.

An almost impossible task

This job seems to take forever because the tricky bit about Hawaii is that it is extremely humid, and as

you can surmise, wet carpet in a humid environment doesn’t dry fast. I had to move things around, and then move it all back. And because we were living there, and none of us wanted to walk barefoot down the stairs on wet carpet, I would clean one side of the stairs one day, and the other side the next. It was necessary to vacuum over and over because one of my beautiful dogs sheds enough hair in a day to weave a rug. Cleaning the carpets is a very intensive project. What would be so important that I finally got off the couch and started the project?

To begin with, the fact that we would be moving soon was motivation enough. But once I got started, I liked the results as those carpets started to turn not orangey-pinkish-brown. I didn’t mind as the sweat poured down my face (we don’t have A/C and it was 89° and humid) because I knew I was getting something done. It didn’t even bother me that I had to walk up and down the stairs continually to empty and fill the clean water reservoir. I could see those results and it made me happy.

Choices are hard

I know that both sides of any choice are hard. Working out is hard, but so is being overweight. Saving money is hard, but so is being broke. Organizing your house is hard, but so is living in chaos. What hard should I choose? What will bring the better outcome?

When it comes to finding the motivation for a result I have to choose a hard. And to be honest, that’s hard, too. I wanted to have clean carpets. I could have paid someone to do it for me, but that would have meant rearranging the budget to make it happen. I liked the path we were on to pay off our debt. So, I chose the hard work, over the hard loss of money. And I’m happy with my choice. I did a great job, got some exercise, and walking on clean carpets is a better feeling than walking on dirty ones.

What hard will you choose?

What will your motivation be?