Dare to like your dislikes!

Wow, you are thinking, she’s really lost it now. What a strange dare! But give me a minute and I think it will make sense.

I am not a numbers person. Sure, I did great in high school math and was partly an econ major in college, but I’ve never liked working with numbers and have always had a dislike for it. I like thinking about concepts, ideas, creative directions, strategies, and solutions infinitely more than I like working with spreadsheets and manipulating numbers. Many of my jobs since college have involved working with numbers, however, and in many cases, in somewhat sophisticated and complicated ways. I’ve done it, I’ve learned it, but every time I am about to open a spreadsheet to work with, I cringe and anticipate how unpleasant it’s going to be.

Well, this week I have a huge spreadsheet to manipulate and I am daring myself to not cringe from unpleasantness but instead, find things about working with numbers that I like. I like how you can link cells in a spreadsheets and if you change one, they all change - it’s kind of fun to watch the numbers jump up like soldiers and change right in front of you. I like how numbers can make broad concepts clearer. I like that they are finite – so much in life is uncertain, it’s nice to know that once you perform a function to a set of numbers, the result is certain.

And I dare you to like your dislikes! Think of something that you don’t like to do - either at home or at work. Perhaps it’s something as simple as making the bed or writing up reports for work. Then think of at least three positive things about your disliked activity - and don’t be afraid to get creative here! For example, take a picture of your room once the bed is made and post it somewhere visible to remind you how nice and neat everything looks. Or decide that every time you finish a report for work you will treat yourself to something - a small piece of jewelry or a sundae.

Our lives are filled with activities that we don’t enjoy but we’ve got to do them. Better to find something positive about things that you don’t like than to spend time cringing at how unpleasant you feel or worse, not doing something because you’ve always disliked it. Right?

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