Oh to be a kid again! Clean your room – I don’t wanna. Eat your veggies – I don’t wanna. Do your homework – I don’t wanna! The list goes on.

But we can’t get away with that as adults. Well. I know plenty of adults who try!

Quite a few of my clients in fact still have the ‘I don’t wanna’ syndrome and seem to think that the choices that come with being an adult include not doing what you don’t want to do. And, this is true to some degree. If I don’t want to clean my home, I can hire someone. If I don’t want to eat my veggies – the extra layers of warmth on my tummy catch up to me.

So yes, I still have choice.

But, if I want to be a successful and goal oriented adult… sometimes (lets face it, a lot) I have to do what I don’t want to do. Life is filled with chores.

Hopefully we all still have our want to do and we allow ourselves time after some chores to do the fun stuff. For me, the fun stuff is my reward.

Just this weekend I spend an entire morning doing some work stuff that needed to be done. One of my friends commented about my balance, or perceived lack thereof. Interestingly, I see balance as being able to balance what I have to do with what I want to do. No more, no less.

Simple.

And, if my commitment to a project, to others and most importantly to myself means working on a Saturday or late at night, I’ll do it. And my reward – fun time!

If I could choose to do just the fun stuff…. Well, that would be an example of a vacation for me! J

I invite you to notice next time you say something along the lines of ‘I don’t wanna’ and simply catch it. I don’t have a magic phrase for it to go away – most likely it has become a habit. So, catching it and being aware of it is the first step to doing anything about it! (If you haven’t already, read my first article on the 3 A’s to Self-Coaching.

And remember – balance what you want to do with what you have to do.

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