Photo by Oziel Gómez pexels.com
We all have things we don’t want to do. Or we do want to do them but we have no idea where to begin, so we instead mentally skip away singing and do anything else instead. (Also, that’s not me in the pic above. I have trekking poles, but they’re more for navigating gravity than actually hiking.)
However, if you have a disease where things can quickly affect you to the point of being unable to do anything else for a while, you know what I mean by Daunting Tasks. These are the things that we will likely suffer from after we’ve done them, and we know this ahead of time. We have to brace ourselves, mentally and physically, before undertaking them, and likewise prepare for the aftermath.
An example from my fun-filled adventure: I took a shower about an hour ago and washed my hair. Now I’m looking at my calendar for the rest of the day wondering what I could just sleep through instead. My neurologist advised me a few years ago that I should begin taking cooler showers to prevent the heat from aggravating my disease. I considered it for a moment, then decided I’d rather just simmer in my hell water, thank you very much. Few things piss me off more than cold water, and lukewarm water during a shower feels like a slow torture method.
Bad attitude, you say? Yeah maybe, but it makes me very happy to choose my Things I Refuse to Give Up and cling to them. So occasionally I am the grinning idiot who just took a steamy shower and is now a puddle of jello with eyeballs in my favorite chair. My stubbornness could be age, genetics, environment, upbringing… spin the wheel, any of those is as likely as the other.
There are layers in Daunting Tasks as well. If my battery is already partially drained from yesterday’s activities (which it is), then any Daunting Task will only drain it faster than it normally would. I can usually recover from my shower within an hour; however, yesterday’s Daunting Task was infinitely worth the effort (spent the day with a lifelong friend) and I expected I might not be the liveliest person today. In fact, I was unsure I’d be able to move today but pushing myself occasionally is a hobby and if I’m being honest, I need to do it in order to feel like I’m “trying”. (I also hate to be encouraged to “try”; if it isn’t my idea, I ain’t doing it. See “bad attitude” paragraph from earlier.)
Everybody’s Daunting Tasks are different. It could be exercising, socializing, traveling, parenting, cooking, putting the stupid peanut butter on the stupid bread with the stupid butter knife that had no business being all the way across the kitchen in a drawer in the first place. Before this one becomes the straw that broke the camel’s back, it’s often a good time to retreat to the favorite chair or even the bed and have some nice recovery time. Growling at anyone who wanders too near is optional but I find it adds a nice effect.
We gotta do some of em, others we can postpone or just nope out entirely. Consequences can occur, so I try to pick my battles wisely and line ’em up so I’m as balanced as I can be. What are your Daunting Tasks, and which ones seem worthwhile after they’re complete? Which ones would you happily kick to the curb for the rest of your life if society/health would allow?
Until next time,
-TJ