In his book “High Energy Habits” author Bill Ford talks about getting rid of the little things that annoy you. We can think of the little things that annoy you as being like mosquitoes. They are pesky, irritating, and drain you of energy you could use far more productively on other things. Often these ‘mosquitoes’ are some minor annoyance or irritant that you are tolerating but are not happy about. Usually, you know what to do to fix it, but you have just not yet got around to doing it. We are so busy that these little things do not seem to justify a high priority. But it takes energy to ignore the mosquitoes and it also reduces our enjoyment of whatever else we are doing at the same time.
The wasted five-star hotel room:
Imagine you have just paid a large amount of money to stay in a luxury five-star hotel room. The room is magnificent and has every luxury you could possibly want. You lie down to sleep in the superbly comfortable bed and suddenly you hear a mosquito start to buzz. You turn on the light and because the hotel ceiling is so high you can’t get the mosquito. It buzzes in your ear all night and you just can’t sleep. The five-star hotel room has been wasted all because of one tiny mosquito. This experience is exactly what life is like when it is full of these little annoyances.
Here’s the solution Bill gives:
1: Take 10 minutes and make a list of all the little things in your life that annoy you. You can even make two lists if you want to.
One list can be for work and one list can be for your personal life. Add to each list over time. You will start to notice more and more things that are not quite the way you would like them to be.
2: Pick two easy ‘mosquitoes’ and deal with them today.
By ‘easy’ I mean items where you know all you need to know in order to fix them and also won’t take too long. These could be things like cleaning your car, sewing on a button, replacing a light bulb, and so on. Then keep going and pick at least two more ‘mosquitoes’ for another day. The momentum will build. Even if you don’t get the thing that irritates you fixed make sure you at least write it down.
Action Exercise:
Make a list of at least 10-20 little things in your life that irritates you in some way. Then take action on two of these things today and notice how good you feel.
If you find that doing laundry is not something you love doing then you may like to use our pick-up and drop-back laundry service.
You can book this online at https://www.lavendera.co.nz/book-your-pick-up/
‘If you think small things don’t bother you, try sleeping with a mosquito’ - Des Moss