There are To Do Items and then there are the "Someday I'd like to..." items. Many times those someday items are big, lofty things like, "I'd like to travel through Europe" or "I'd like to write a book series about (insert thing that is not what I'm currently writing)" or "I'd like to live in a cabin in the mountains (with full internet and amenities, of course.)" Those things are great to have. Lofty things can be accomplished. Once upon a time, I said, "I'd like to be a full-time writer." So those someday items are vital. Stretch goals. Dreams. Brass rings. All that.
But there's also this other kind of someday item--the annoying type that you really would like to have done but don't actually look forward to doing them. You want the result, not the stress/work/process of getting there. Painting my office was one of those items for me.
I've been having the same color on the walls of my office for almost ten years. And it wasn't the color I would've picked in the first place because my office was originally in a different room (which eventually got turned into my son's room when he was born.) But I was DREADING the process of painting the room. Because not only would all the furniture need to be moved, but there are three bookcases and about 600 books in here, AND the high, oddly angled ceiling would have to be painted, too. Fun times.
But after doing all this goal-setting and planner buying and digital detoxing for the new year, I realized--now is the time. I needed to break down the overwhelming job into a list of doable tasks (pick out a paint color, get supplies, clear out the office, etc.) and then rip off the bandaid. I could do this. This is a fresh start to the year and my office should be refreshed, too. I spend at least 40 hours a week in this room. I should like it.
So on Sunday morning I woke up and told hubs, "I think I'm going to paint my office today. Do you think I could do it by myself?"
Hubs, being the gentleman that he is (and probably fearing for my safety and his sanity), said, "Maybe. But why don't we tackle it together?" So we did. Finally. Here's the two-day journey in snapshot form.
The Before:
Tan walls. Dark curtains. I think I was creating a literal writer's cave because with only one window, I definitely wasn't doing anything to help spread light around.
Unloading 600 books is super fun. My hallways looked like a used bookstore warehouse. This is about 25% of what I unloaded off the shelves.
After an hour of working on the ceiling, I was beginning to question why I'd taken this on.
Why did I bring this upon myself again? And why did the builder think it was fun to do angles and rounded edges on these ceilings?
Eight hours later. We were exhausted and thought we were done. (Little did we know that when we woke up Monday morning, the bright daylight would bring us a gift--the ceiling needed a second coat.)
This was our celebratory, "We're done!" pic Sunday night. But Monday we ended up having another 4 hours of work ahead of us, lol.
BUT when we finished, this is what I ended up with. :)
The After:
My Day Designer looks like it was born to be there. :)
The pic makes the wall look a little green here but it's a pale grayish blue.
The color is called Sleepy Blue (by Sherwin Williams). Hopefully, that doesn't mean I'll be sleeping in my office. :) But it's very calming and it makes the whole room bigger and brighter. So in the end, the 12 hours of work was SO worth it. And now I'm kicking myself for waiting this long. What's 12 hours in the grand scheme of things? Plus, hubs and I got to hang out and laugh at each other as the two of us tried to figure out the best way to do all this. (Neither of us are handy in any way. We're the people who fall off ladders and step in paint trays.)
So though it was a minor thing of changing a wall color, it was a lesson for me. GET THE SOMEDAY STUFF OFF THE TO DO LIST. Break the thing down into tasks that seem manageable and start checking off the tasks. Often the dread of the entire thing keeps us from even attempting, but usually it's not as bad as we've built it up to be. And even if it is a pain, it all has a finish line. It'll be over and done soon enough, and then you'll get to enjoy the results for much, much longer. I just had to ask myself--is the end product going to be worth the work to get there? If the answer is yes, I need to go for it instead of procrastinating it so long it ends up on the Never list.
Do you have things on your Someday To Do list that you dread doing? What's keeping you from tackling it?