Every morning and evening, after I’ve fed Lily, my cat, I leave the house and walk 100 metres across the garden to the garage. I open the garage door and walk to the bin store in the corner and put the empty cat food pouch in the bin.

Every morning and evening, after I’ve fed Lily, my cat, I look down at the empty cat food pouch in my hand and think, “I can’t be fucking arsed to walk 100 metres across the garden to the garage, to then have to open the garage door and walk to the bin store in the corner and put the empty cat food pouch in the bin.”

And yet I do.

Every time.

I can’t ever really be arsed to put my dirty plates and cutlery straight into the dishwasher.

And yet I do.

I’d much prefer to just leave them in the sink.

I can’t ever really be arsed to cook.

And yet I do.

I’d much prefer to just bung a pizza in the oven.

I can’t ever really be arsed to file away the bills and documents that fill up the tray on my office desk.

And yet I do it.

I choose to put the cat food punch straight in the bin in the garage, because the other option is to put the empty cat food pouch in the bin under the kitchen sink. Where it sits for a few days and rots, and I end up having to disinfect the entire bin.

I choose to put my dirty plates and cutlery straight into the dishwasher, because the other option is to just leave them to pile up. And then at the end of the day, I want to cry at the Mount Everest of crusty crockery I have to sort through.

I choose to cook, because the other option is to just bung an 800 calorie frozen pizza in the oven each night. And then I feel like absolute shit a few hours later and wish I hadn’t.

I choose to file the documents straight away, because the other option is to keep shoving more and more documents in the “to file” tray and well, I just know I’ll never ever ever ever do it.

I’ve learned over the years to pick my pain.

I’ve learned to choose short term effort over short term ease.

I kept this in mind when I trained for, and ran marathons.

I kept this in mind when I built my coaching business from the ground up.

And I keep this in mind when I do something as simple as feeding the cat.

Short term effort over short term ease, remember?

Over and out.