Just Do It

I owe the genius over at Nike who launched the Just Do It campaign a big thank-you.  In fact, so do my husband and children, though they might not know it (and, in one case, though he cannot say it).  Those three little words are what propel me through most of every day.  If I didn't heed their command more often than not, I would weigh 300 pounds, my daughter's lunch box would contain nothing more than a Nutri-Grain bar, and there'd be a stacks of dirty dishes and piles of dirty laundry blotting my house like domestic acne.

A lot of what I do on a day-to-day basis is not what you would call, you know, fun.  I spend a decent chunk of every day staring into the gaping hole of a dishwasher -- because I'm unloading it one instant and loading it right back up the next.  I have a similarly intimate relationship with the washer and dryer.  If I go through a day without an open-fill-empty of those Sisters from Sears, well, it's a day worthy of fireworks.  I change lots of diapers.  I clean lots of spit-up.  I do a lot of assists on and off the potty.  I fill sippy-cups with juice.  I fill sippy-cups with juice.  I fill sippy-cups with juice. 

Oh, I fill sippy-cups with juice.

If I want to make it to the gym, I need to get there before the sun even thinks about shining.  That means my day starts, at the earliest, around 4:45AM.  At the latest, it starts around 6:15, when my son wakes up.  My day ends, at the earliest, around 8:30 when both children are in bed, the kitchen is clean, and lunches are ready for the next day.  At the latest, it ends around 10, after my husband and I have tried to spend some time together with our eyes open.  In between, it's a semi-controlled, somewhat-orchestrated chaos of school, day-care, work, errands, chores, meal prep, activities, and enforcing time-outs.

Now hang on a second.  I'm not putting this out there because I think someone should feel sorry for me.  None of the above is abnormal.  None of the above qualifies in anyone's book as "problems."  None of the above was unsolicited -- I signed up for every aspect of my life that now defines the countour of my days.

But there's no denying that it's busy.  Which means I get tired.  And there's no denying the not-fun aspects of much of it.  Which means I usually sometimes would prefer to be doing something else.  Unfortunately, though, my son isn't going to learn how to change his own diaper.  And my daughter, sadly, isn't going to learn to fill her own godforsaken sippy cup.  So I just. have. to. do. it.

Alarm goes off.  It's dark.  Get up and go to the gym?  Just do it.

Kids need to be bathed.  Both will put up a fight.  Just do it.

Groceries need to be bought.  Awful, horrible errand.  Just do it.

It's such a wonderful little mantra.  It immediately cuts short the debate you could otherwise let yourself have which would inevitably end in you NOT doing what you otherwise should to save you pain or stress or angst just a stone's throw down the road.  Don't engage with the Just Delay Its.  You will pay.  Embrace the mantra.  Just Do It.