How to Find Joy in the Mundane
Life isn’t extraordinary, it’s largely ordinary — and that’s okay
On a morning just like any other, I woke up to a familiar scene. The sink was full of dishes to the point that I could not fit anything from my breakfast into the sink. I stared at the pile and thought to myself “I don’t want to do the dishes.” It is a simple scenario that plays out across the world every day.
Despite my resistance to doing the simple chore, the dishes had to be done. No one else was going to do them. Or, as my mother would say, who do you think is going to clean them, the dish fairy?
As I prepared to throw on the water and do the chore, I stopped and asked an important question. Why not? Why didn’t I want to do the dishes?
I didn’t have a good answer. In fact, for a good five minutes, I didn’t have any answer at all.
I’d rather be doing something else. Not a good excuse for an adult.
The dishes are gross. But they’d only continue to get grosser.
I’m tired. So do them later but don’t wait too long.
I honestly did not have a good answer to why I did not want to do the dishes. Truly.
It was in that moment that I realized life was painfully mundane. It was also in that moment that I learned that I could whine about that, dodge the unhappy fact that 99% of life is chores and simple repetitive tasks, or I could embrace that fact.
Embracing it made all the difference.
Mundane Lives
Social media has tricked an entire generation into thinking that life can be extraordinary more often than not. Instagram and Facebook are littered with pictures of fabulous vacations, exotic locales, fun out with friends, and amazing accomplishments. What social media doesn’t show is the slog that occurs between those things. Mundane doesn’t get clicks.
There were influencers who were caught hiring a set to fake flying on a private jet in order to raise their profile online. Even that task would require hours of simple tasks and chores. You have to call and book the jet. You have to approve the list of props and outfits you want to use during the photo shoot. You have to travel to the set. You have to take a break to eat and relieve yourself. Then you have to pay and check out when you’re done. It is in those small moments that you find true happiness.
The vast majority of people on Earth, including myself, live simple lives. We wake up, we eat, we read or watch the news or TV for a bit, we go to work, we come home, we eat some more, do (or avoid) a list of the same tasks and chores we do every day before going to bed. Then we wake up and do it all over again.
The joy in life is not in waiting for the next big vacation or hoping that your life takes an amazing turn. In fact, doing that leads to a phrase that everyone is familiar with. The grass is always greener on the other side.
But when people get to that mythical “other side,” they are often disappointed to learn that the grass over there was hardly different from the grass you just left.
Enjoying the Daily Grind
Vacations are good. They are fun. Traveling is fun. But people cannot base their entire happiness foundation on extraordinary moments because they are too far and few between. There was a study done that showed no difference between the life satisfaction of people who vacation frequently and those who don’t vacation at all. No change at all between the two. So what gives?
No matter who you are, life is made up of a cycle of simple repetitive tasks. Whether you are a Buddhist temple monk in Japan, an American freelance writer who works from home or a European millionaire, everyone’s life can be broken down into a series of chores they do daily. It is in these chore that you will find happiness.
Appreciate a good meal out with your family.
Scrub the dishes with vigor.
Look out the window when it starts to rain.
Take pride in the dinner you are cooking, even if you’ve cooked it a hundred times already.
Learn to relax and enjoy your commute, treat it as downtime.
Simple tasks are the things that will make you feel alive because they are the things that make up life. If you choose to be miserable during these tasks, it is no wonder that you are miserable overall. This is what life is. Realizing that is the first key step to finding true and lasting happiness.
There is a constant denial that life is anything more which causes a lot of pain and disappointment. Stacie Orrico sang it best:
There’s gotta be more to life
Than chasing down every temporary high
To satisfy me
’Cause the more that I’m
Tripping out thinking there must be more to life
Well it’s life but I’m sure
There’s gotta be more
Than wanting more
Unfortunately for her, and millions like her, there is not much more to life.
And that is okay.
