Doing Laundry

Lately, I have had a lot of conversations around doing things that most people don’t find enjoyable. I mean who likes doing laundry? I’m not referring to finding satisfaction in getting it done and crossing it off your to do list either. I’m talking about finding joy in actually picking up the dirty clothes, washing them, drying them, folding them, and putting them away. It’s safe to say that the overwhelming majority, including myself, do not love, love, love doing laundry.

But I do it. I do it regularly, and when I do it, I do it until the job is done. The reason I do it regularly, is that I don’t want it to pile up. If I stay on top of it, and don’t let it become a massive chore, it’s not so bad, and it doesn’t take up too much of my time. I’m doing what I HAVE to do so that I can do what I WANT to do.

Laundry is a metaphor for a lot of things in our life. If we build it up to be this big, pain in the neck thing, and let it pile up, it becomes that big, pain in the neck thing. And then it takes up an entire day of our lives to just get it done, while we could have been doing other things that we love. Here’s the cross over.

As a runner, I look at cross training, stretching, icing, going to the physio, and other non-running activities as laundry. Honestly, I don’t really enjoy most of that stuff. Those are the things that I have to do, so that I can do what I want to do… run. If I don’t do them regularly, and let them “pile up”, it very often ends with me losing a lot of time running. Injuries occur and guess what. I end up spending a huge amount of time cross training, stretching, icing, and going to the physio anyway. Worst of all, I most likely am NOT RUNNING.

Just like laundry, I try and stay on top of all of this stuff. I get my core work, stretching, and icing in when I watch TV. It’s the easiest time for me to do it, because if I’m sitting still, I can be icing. If there are commercials, I can plank or do push-ups. If I’m tight, I can roll or stretch. This is what works for me. If I can watch a game daily (Stanley Cup Play-Offs anyone?), I can do all of this other stuff too. Think through your day and find what works best for you.

My experience is that I have had a pretty direct correlation to skipping a lot of the non-running activities, especially when my mileage is increasing and I’m tired or “don’t have time”, to the injuries that have side lined me the longest. So, just like the laundry, you may not like doing it, but you’ll love the results…Clean clothes! Errr; I mean no injuries… The buzzer on my dryer just went off, time to fold some clothes.

If I can help you on your journey in any way, please reach out to me.

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