The Things We MOST Need To Do!

We all have to do items and the ones we dread doing are usually the ones we need to do first. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it this way:

What we fear doing is most is usually most what we need to do.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson 1882

I can relate to this, as sometimes (more often than I care to admit) I do all the petty, easy, mundane to do items and leave the ones I am afraid to do last. Which lets face it, is procrastination combined with dread. I am sitting here now with a list of at least four or five of these dreaded to do items glaring at me from the note on my desk where I jotted them down. They have almost gathered dust since I wrote them, and yet they still make my palms sweat just thinking about having to do them. So why is that?

I think it all boils down to fear. We dread these items as they push us beyond our known borders and force us to think, grow, change or even ask for help. UGH! Being an adult can be so, so….not sure of the right word here…so adult! I see my teenage nieces and nephews and want to urge them to live in a yurt, live off the grid and have no responsibility whatsoever! And yet that is counter to everything we know about growing up to be an adult.

Let’s face it, some days it is easier to be an adult than others. It’s like dealing with those people who chap your hide and you hold your tongue because it is the adult thing to do. Or the conversation that includes views that are not your own, and you politely remain silent in order to avoid starting World War III! And then there is the task or goal in your life that haunts your thoughts as you still have not done enough to work to even call it a REAL goal yet. You know, those adult things that take up our time and energy…the ones Emerson reminds us are the ones we probably need to do MOST!

So I will make pact with you: You do ONE of your most dreaded tasks and I will do one. And when the world does not explode and our heads are still attached to our shoulders, we can laugh at how our fear, procrastination and dread held us back from something we could do, we just didn’t want to have to work THAT hard. Let’s agree to stop overcomplicating our lives by avoiding the hard things and do them. Emerson is right, they are the things we MOST NEED TO DO!