On New Year’s Day, my family and I participated in the annual event known as taking down the Christmas decorations. Maybe you’re familiar with this event and even participated recently yourself. If so, you’ll know that this particular annual event is no where near as fun as the one that precedes it—putting up the Christmas decorations.
None the less, this year we made the removal of Christmas décor from our home a family affair. The “boys” tackled the outside, while the “girls” tackled the inside. Kailea offered to take the ornaments off the tree while I put away all the other decorations.
I was quite engrossed in my task. I didn’t notice Kailea happily working away on her project and didn’t notice her removing every single chair from our kitchen table to assist her in her task. Kailea turned removing the ornaments from the tree into a game by forming a circle of chairs all the way around the perimeter of the tree. The game was to see how many ornaments she could get off the tree and onto the nearby table without touching the ground. She worked happily away at her task, and even refused later offers of help when the boys returned from the great outdoors. She had made her task fun.
The point of my story, by the way, isn’t to advocate children standing on furniture. In fact, under normal circumstances in our home, this particular “crime” results in a one dollar fine. My point is this: kids have an innate ability to make things fun. And this is something we can all learn from the kids in our lives or the former kids in ourselves.
As you go about your daily tasks, be it the big tasks like working on an organizing project or making progress on a goal or resolution, or the small and tedious tasks like laundry or un-decorating your home, approach your chores with child-like spirit. Making a game out of your daily tasks and adding a dose of fun makes the task itself more enjoyable and increases the odds that you’ll stick to your long term goals and projects.
