Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy
TL;DR
We tend to create false narratives about the difficulty of the tasks we’re avoiding.
By tackling them head-on, you’ll often find those tasks to be “easy-peasy-lemon-squeezier” than you imagined.
The other night I was staring at a mound of dishes in the sink after a super long day of work, and as I was about to walk away and “get to them later,” I was reminded of a phrase my daughter Zoe used to say all the time: easy peasy lemon squeezy.
I summoned up the tiny bit of energy I had left and put my dish gloves on.
Since I was facing the Mount Everest of dirty dishes, I was positive that it was going to take me about 10 hours to wash them. I FELT so strongly about this that I figured it must be true. Of course, just because I felt it didn't mean it was true…
One of my favorite buddhist teachers, Tara Brach, has popularized this phrase originally coined by Buddhist teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche: Real but not true.
What this essentially means is that although thoughts themselves are REAL, that doesn’t always mean they are TRUE.
The thought in my head was, “Ugh, this is going to take forever!" But, in reality, what appeared to be a 10-hour pile of dishes took me all of 10 MINUTES to wash. That’s it!
And what did I literally say out loud as I walked away from my beautifully clean and empty sink?
Yup, you guessed it — “Easy peasy lemon squeezy" (said with a big-ass grin on my face because, really, it’s always my kids who humble me at the end of the day and teach me the most).
So here’s my challenge to you this week:
GET CLEAR. Identify your proverbial “dishes." What’s something that you’ve been putting off because the story you’ve told yourself is that it’s “too much” or “too hard” or “not going to make a difference” or “not worth the time?" Focus on one task that you’ve been avoiding; it can be as simple as making your bed in the morning or, yep, doing the damn dishes. Maybe it's reaching out to a work colleague that you've been meaning to follow up with. Or finally getting that workout in. Or going to that live event you’ve been on the fence about. You get the idea.
GET PLAYFUL. Conjure up your inner 5-year-old and, even if it feels silly, try telling yourself that the task is “Easy peasy lemon squeezy" — even if you don’t believe it! Remember that the story in your head regarding this task may be real, but the message may not be true. This could be all you need to do to provide just enough opening to get out of your own way!
GET INTO ACTION. I dare you to find time between now and next week to do that ONE task that you've been putting off. We call these tasks FROGS in The Creative Path course, and you can click here to read more about eating frogs and getting a hold of procrastination.
GET CONNECTED! Don’t keep this accomplishment to yourself! You will be more likely to do more when you see how your actions inspire others to do the things that they've been putting off. Celebrate the small wins and, trust me, you will want to keep going. Take a picture of the task or yourself completing it, and share it with me and the Capes Coaching community on Instagram.
Use this process whenever you find yourself avoiding certain tasks and you’ll soon discover just how “easy peasy lemon squeezy” it all can be. 😊
Betsy