Time, Time, Time's Not on My Side; No It's Not!!

I was reading this article about how to keep your house clean in 15 minutes a day with weekends off.  Now my mind just screamed, "RIGHT!  No way could that be possible, and do a good job!"  The reason that I hate housework is because it takes so freaking long.  yada yada yada!!!  My mind was flying around a million miles an hour with all the reasons that this just couldn't be done.  Then it occurred to me that I was doing exactly what I shouldn't be doing.  If I want to do this properly, I need to eliminate the talk of all the reasons why it couldn't be done.  I would need to focus on the reasons and methods that would make this work for me.  I needed to figure out what was needed to get my mind into that space.  Then it struck me, it is really all a simple mind game.  I know you have all heard the old adage by Henry Ford, "If you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right."  I do think though that there was a lot more than mind gaming going on there with me.

I have this thing with time that has been plaguing me for a long time.  I have the "There isn't enough time" syndrome.  I'm convinced that there just isn't enough time to do "ANYTHING"; coupled with lazy-itis.  I'm not sure which srtuck me first, or if they both manifest at the same time.  Either way, I just can't seem to get anything done, and boy do I have a litany of excuses to keep me from doing anything at all.  It goes something like this.

I'm to tired to do that

I'm not going to get it done, so why start

Look at all this "other" shyt that is left undone

Where will I put that (we just moved, which is itself another excuse)

Crap I have to get groceries; please beat me so I don't have to go do this

Going to the grocery store (mall, craft store, doctor; etc.) exhausts me

I don't have enough time to do that

There isn't enough time to do that

Where did the time go

How long is that gonna take?

Really there just isn't enough time

The old man will be home soon, so I just don't have time to finish that so why start

Where did the time get to

With so little time in a day, I'd rather play

Let me just rest a moment before I start that

I don't have anywhere to put that

I'm sure you get the idea.  As you can see these are all coming down on the negative side.  So I need to turn these all around to a more empowering litany.  However, I will need to check in on the lazy-itis syndrome first.  My mother always told me that I was lazy, but I have noticed that I have sufficient energy to do things that I really want to do.  So lazy probably isn't the real answer here.  It is more likely a lack of interest in the proposed activity that is causing the "laziness".  So now that we have identified the disease, we need to examine its etiology of this lack of interest.

I suggest that the real cause of this lazyitis is the lack of fulfillment that I got when I was a child from performing the "clean your room" activity assign by my neatnic mother.  She had her own litany of inadequacy that she would use on the results of my cleaning my room, and it goes like this:

Do you call this clean

You have no idea what clean is

How could you be done if 15 minutes (lol, a telling statement), it takes me a good hour to do that

You didn't put everything back where it was

What's that under the bed?

Let me show you how to do that

Oh just get out of my way, I have to do everything around here

She would proceed to redo everything that I had done.  This happened "every" time I would clean my room.  So I got so I would just go in, and bang around a while come out and tell her I was done.  She would scream her litany the whole time she was re-doing the room.  My activity or lack there of really, would save me time and keep her happy. 

So now it is time to change my mind about the rewards of cleaning.  I need a new litany:

I like to see my clean house

I like the smell of freshness left by the cleaning products

I like to invite people over to my clean house--this is a big one here

My husband likes a clean house--whoops, hit a snag here.  I really have little proof that he likes it clean, as he makes big messes and leaves them lay.  Strike this one

It is more healthy to have a clean house--LOL it works for me

I sleep better when it is clean-that's true

I like the mood reward of doing it

The satisfaction alone is worth the effort

So OK, that works for me...

Now the litany of time

I don't need to finish it all at once, just get it started

There is time enough to get a little bit done

If you need it, there is a place for it

15 minutes is a LONG time, you can get lots done

You have the rest of the day left after you finish the 15 minutes of cleaning

I will start now so it will be finished before the old man gets home

I'll take a break after I finish this

I feel good, like I knew that I would

Energy abounds

I am pure Energy

I am a powerhouse

I am a neatnik

I can do ALL things--LOL, well that really is the truth now isn't it.  Maybe this is the only litany that  needs to be remembered

OK, it's off to clean this mansion of mine.  Back in 15 minutes.

Namaste