A valuable skill

Doing what you don't want to do is a valuable skill.

I'm not talking about unethical or illegal activity — that's a different conversation entirely. I mean the ordinary, unglamorous stuff. I don't want to finish my taxes because I know I'll owe the federal government. I don't feel like paying high gas prices. I don't want to walk the dog and deal with the aftermath. I don't want to complete certain reports because the information already exists somewhere else and the whole exercise feels redundant.

These are activities I simply don't enjoy. But if I surrender to that feeling and just don't do them, there are real-world consequences — for me and for others.

The temptation is to try a reframe like "I love this!" Fake enthusiasm. Forced positivity. It doesn't work, and honestly, it feels a little insulting to your own intelligence.

Here's what does work: be thankful that you have the competencies to do work you don't enjoy. Be grateful that your efforts will benefit someone, even when you can't feel it in the moment. And remind yourself that you are not driven by your emotions — you are driven by something deeper.

That's the reframe. Not pretending the task is something it isn't. Just recognizing what it says about who you are that you do it anyway.

What's one task you regularly avoid — and what would it mean about your character if you chose to do it anyway?