Integrity

This past Spring Break, we took the family on an East Coast adventure. Nine days, 6 states + DC, 1000+ miles in the rental car, and over 90,000 steps walked. One of the highlights of our trip was seeing the musical Wicked on Broadway. We were enamored. The music! The performances!! The songs!!! The 2-1/2 hours of performance time went by in the flashiest of flashes.

Did you know Wicked recently celebrated its 20-year anniversary? There was nothing about the theater, customer service, presentation, or orchestra that seemed old and busted – it all seemed new and fresh. The staff, musicians, and performers enthusiastically brought their A-games. We had the best time.

When we got home, we quickly got back into our regular routines. Back to ye olde grindstone. Dog needs food and a walk every day. Cat demands food and aggressive brushing every day. Dishwasher loaded then unloaded every day. Meal planning. Grocery shopping. Laundry. Rinse and repeat until I die. 

There’s one particular monthly task I have at work that I have a mental block against. I don’t know why I despise this particular monthly task; I just do. I hate it. I procrastinate and procrastinate. It moves from one To Do list to the next. Before I know it, it’s the end of the month & there’s no more To Do lists in this month to move it to. So I grouse and grumble and half-ass the task.

To help make the task less agonizing, I asked Alexa to play the soundtrack from Wicked. Aah, that made it better.

Except then it didn’t.

Wicked has been playing for over 20 years. Nearly 8000 performances. Eight shows per week. And no one we came in contact with seemed tired of it. They brought the same level of enthusiasm to each performance, no matter how repetitive it was. They show up with integrity over the long haul.

And here I am complaining about one particular monthly task, spending more time actively avoiding it than just doing it, then half-assing it when I do finally get around to it.

How can I be more like a Broadway performer – enthusiastically doing repetitive tasks, giving them the attention they deserve? How can I show up with integrity in my daily life, even when it’s boring, ordinary, mind-numbing, or repetitive? 

I wish I could tell you I figured it all out and have some amazing wisdom to pass along, except I don’t. I was able to bring my whole self to my work task that I was grousing about, but what will happen next month?

Have you cracked this code? I’d love to hear your tips!