A Rich and Happy Life is Clean Dishes
or How Washing Dishes is like practicing the Rich and Happy Formula.
The Free Coaching that Was, Wasn’t and turned out to Be.
Tim Brownson offered 6 months free life coaching to someone about two weeks ago. I was interested. I submitted the requested email with why I should be the one to receive the coaching. I didn’t get it. I did get a nice email letting me know I wasn’t “one of the chosen” and the pdf version of “How to Be Rich and Happy.”
Almost immediately my quiet little voice said – this is a chance for you to Walk Your Talk and extract every possible thing from the book and come out up here instead of over here. Same direction, more experiences.
You’ve just been handed a regimented and exact step by step schedule for success suggested map of how you might choose to progress towards your THRiViNG! Life – it’s a go.
The Critical Voice Offers Insights
I opened up the e-book and started reading.
Initially -
[Critical Voice] Did they rewrite the intro to Think And Grow Rich?
[Me] Oh hi critical voice – you sure are observant and thanks for that insight, however I’m in the middle of reading this intro right now…
[CR] … yeah the one that sounds like it’s from Think and Grow Rich?
[Me] Yes that one, so can we think, talk, be concerned with it later? Is it important to using the book?
I made it through the intro and almost to the end of the second chapter and cue Be movie flash back music…
The Remembering Scene in a Be Movie
I’m 10.
As a 10 year old only child who received an allowance based on the work done – the only chore I found the most creative ways to continue avoiding was Washing Dishes.
I’d clean bathrooms, wash and hang laundry outside, vacuum, clean windows without a care with just the slightest sense of rebellion tempered by threats of missed allowance.
But washing dishes – nope, if my weekly allowance was solely dependent on washing dishes, well I’d just as soon be broke.
So mostly I either left it half done or completely undone.
Now I’m 20. Or 27 Or 35. It doesn’t matter because I still hated washing dishes.
I was grown up. I had moved out. And the dishes, still piled in the sink, unwashed, waiting, growing crusty and beckoning me to do them, even with a dishwasher to hand. But I didn’t do them, solely because I wouldn’t.
It was such a pain in the ass, touching and scrubbing and scraping and scouring, pots, pans, silverware, glasses, plates…
But back then, when I did finally break down and wash them, it was only because everything, and I mean everything was dirty and I didn’t have any money to eat out with, so I had no choice, if I wanted to eat that is.
And yes, I wanted to eat, so I had to wash a pot and a pan to prepare the food in.
I had to wash a spoon, a fork and knife to prepare the food with and to eat the food with. I had to clear off both some counter space and the stove top to prepare the food on.
And generally, I’d wash just enough dishes to give me the space in which to prepare and consume what I wanted. Then while I was consuming the food, I’d promise myself I’d get to the rest of them – eventually.
Rich Happy Clean Dishes
So what changed? Why now at *some undisclosed age that you know to be over 35* did I finally begin the practice of washing dishes? And how exactly does that tie into the book “How To Be Rich and Happy”?
Even now the thought of having to do too many of them at once, makes me sick to my stomach. So I created a dish washing formula that works for me.
Well the behavior that keeps my Rich and Happy life just out of reach is exactly like the behavior that kept clean dishes a pain in the ass to have.
I created a habit out of first ignoring, then only cleaning and clearing barely enough space to accomplish an immediate reward.
“You have to take an active role in the process. The same goes for being Rich and Happy. One of the common characteristics of Rich and Happy people is that they don’t just know the steps in the Rich and Happy formula – they do them.
I’ve come to appreciate the daily art and practice of washing dishes, just as I’m now learning to appreciate the daily practice of the formula for my Rich and Happy Life.
What’s next?
Something about values. I know I value clean dishes. But what else do I value?
Find out, next Thursday.
Grab your own copy* of “How to Be Rich and Happy” and help Tim and John in their quest to give away 1,000,000 copies.
*That is not an affiliate link. It goes directly to their store because it supports simply their effort to give the book away to
- Young people between 15-20 years old
- Single parents on income support
- Unemployed people
- Homeless people
