Have you been wondering how to get motivated to clean your house?
Believe it or not, we're taking that on at Live on Purpose TV today.
Clean your house?
Seriously?
Why?
Why would you want to?
This is legitimate question, folks.
Connect with it.
Why would you want to do that?
Alright.
Now, notice whatever is going in your mind because there might be some resistance there.
Where's like, "I don't really like to."
Well, okay, then don't.
Yeah, but if I don't?
Hmm.
Okay, let's go there for a minute.
If you don't?
What?
Well you get to live in filth?
Things to get clutter up and gets messy.
Oh, and you don't like that?
So, why would you want to clean your house?
I think if we start with a strong enough why, we'll figure out the how.
But we get in our own way a lot of times.
Let's start with some clarity around that.
Why would you want to clean your house?
And as I invite you to think about that, notice that you can bring to your mind the images
of a clean house.
A house where there's order.
Where you're surrounded by things that you love and use.
Alright, can you picture that?
Getting clear about that picture will help facilitate the motivation to actually get
it done.
Spend a little time there, okay?
I got this idea from Marla Dee.
She has a process called "Clear and Simple" and you might remember in an interview that
I did with her at Live on Purpose Radio.
I'll link to that in the description below.
You'll notice that this image of the place that you're creating, the calm, serene, peaceful,
orderly, clean environment that you get to live in once you keep your promise to yourself,
that becomes your why.
So, get clear about it, picture it, spend a little time there.
Now, as that picture continues to unfold in your mind, let's get clear about this being
a choice as well.
You don't have to.
You do not have to clean your home.
Oh, there are some clear consequences if you don't.
But I am saying that's a legitimate choice.
And if we get to choose to clean out house, that's different from telling like we have
to clean our house.
Take some of the pressure off.
Choose to, not have to.
It feels different.
It's a whole lot easier to engage in that, "who will work harder?
A slave or a freeman?"
Yeah, a freeman will always work harder and more effectively and more productively that
a slave.
If you have to do this and nobody's paying you for it, what are you?
Well you're that slave.
So, this is a mental shift, it's a paradigm where you get to choose to versus have to.
practice that in your mind and see what happens.
Now, in some other videos, we've talked more about motivation.
You connect with motivation through 2 primary human motivators, pleasure and pain.
Of the 2, which one is more motivating?
In other words, which one causes you to change your behavior faster?
Pleasure or pain?
Yeah, it's pain.
Oh, it is?
Psychologically, we will always do more to avoid pain than we will to seek pleasure.
What that means is, the pain that we perceive in making a change is probably more important
that the pleasure that we perceive that we'll get if we make the change.
But there's a little bit of a catch, okay?
And it has to do with a concept that I called a "Psychological Hurdle."
If you change your behavior around cleaning the house, for example.
Since, that's the topic we're on.
If you change that behavior and become better and more consistent to cleaning your house,
you will experience pleasure.
As we've talked about it already.
You will also experience pain.
Well, what if you don't change?
What if you just stayed the same?
What if you don't adjust you habits around cleaning the house?
Well, you're still going to experience both, pleasure and pain.
Here's the catch.
The pleasure of changing that behavior comes later on.
It's not right now.
Oh, you'll get a little bit of pleasure as you see yourself jumping in on the task.
But the pleasure of sitting in that quiet, peaceful, clean home, that comes later after
the work's done.
Do you agree?
When do have to get to have the pain of making that change?
Oh, right now, it's upfront, you get that as you enter the task.
What if you don't change?
When do you get to experience the pleasure of not changing?
Right now.
When do you get the pain of not changing?
And I mean the bulk of it?
Most of that comes later on.
Because you can anticipate the things will get worst, right?
That's the hurdle.
Because our mind will always see now pain as greater that later pain.
So, we avoid making the change because the pain happens now even though we know that
we're going to have pain if we don't change, it's just delayed a little bit.
A better example of that is smoking.
One if my clients wanted to quit smoking.
He knew that pain would be coming to his life if didn't quit.
He has read the surgeon general's warning on every pack that he opens.
He's been to health class in Highschool, he saw the black lung videos, he knows that this
is bringing pain into his life but not today.
Because today I'm okay, today I'm fine.
It's going to cause problems down the road, right?
Yeah.
A different client came into me and reported that he had quit smoking in one day.
And it's because he went to his doctor with diagnosis of emphysema.
This was killing him now.
When the pain is now, we change now.
Get real about the pain.
It's coming.
The hurdle is that the hard thing now keeps us from doing the thing that we promised we
do even though that's going to save a lot more pain later on.
That's something that we continue to work on through other videos.
Now, we can reduce the pain a little bit if we will start small.
Another podcast that I did was with Marla Cilley, she's better know as The FlyLady.
And she's made an entire career of helping people to start small.
Her suggestion is, "shine you sink."
That's like step 1.
Don't clean your house, don't even clean your kitchen.
Shine your sink.
You're going to polish that sink up until it is shining.
You've got everything out?
Throw down to the floor if you have to.
But get the sink shining.
And that does something psychologically.
It's like the first bite of an elephant, right?
You're going to eat the whole thing but you got to start with one little bite.
Shine your sink and then tomorrow, shine the sink, it's going to take a lot less work tomorrow
because you shined it today.
Maintenance is always easier than overhaul.
You shine the sink tomorrow and you'll have another little peace.
Whatever it is.
Marla has got a lot of ideas.
So, we'll link to that podcast down in the description as well.
And you can get some other ideas from Marla.
Start Small.
And finally, I think what I'd add is "celebrate the victories."
Noticing, giving yourself credit for the progress that you're making.
Especially, if it's a big task that you're undertaking.
See that you've taking a step for two, that you've shined your sink, that you've taken
2 boxes out of the garage, whatever it is.
Give yourself some credit for having made progress towards your goal.
Enjoy your life now.
Because now is when you get to live your life.
Not after you get your house cleaned.
Oh, you get to do it then, too.
But what I am saying is we live life now.
Let's find ways to enjoy our life now.
Celebrate those victories.
I sincerely hope that these videos are improving your life and maybe someone else that you
love.
Share this video with someone.