Spring has finally arrived!

To me, that’s pretty doggone exciting. Spring and fall are my absolute favorite times of year.

Somehow the transition from the cold dark of winter to the warm, bright green of spring makes me a lot happier. I get too comfortable “just dealing with” the doldrums of winter and seem not to get a whole lot accomplished.

But, SPRING HAS ARRIVED!

This sense of energy and urgency tends to take over and drives me to do things I’ve been putting off forever…like Spring cleaning.

For example, yesterday as I was feverishly vacuuming, dusting, wiping down, and washing, something occurred to me. (Have I ever mentioned how amazed I am at the way God uses everyday mundane tasks to teach us lessons?)

Most of the time when we say we’re “dealing with it,” we really mean we’re ignoring it. If we ignore it, eventually it will go away, right?

In this case, yes. Eventually winter will go away and spring will come. But, that’s likely not the case.

Think of it like this.

Let’s say you have a leaky roof. You can deal with it by putting a bucket under the drip, cleaning up the mess after every rain storm, or complaining about the leak.

Those may work short term, but that leaky roof ain’t going away on it’s own. You have to take steps toward repairing the leak. And the sooner the better.

The longer you “deal with it,” the harder it often is to fix it.

What about you? What did you “deal with” this winter?

• Maybe you didn’t feel like sticking to your health goals during the winter and thought, “I’ll get back on track once it’s warmer and I can get outside more.” Only problem is – now you’re even further behind your goals than you were when you started.
• Maybe you “medicated” your own winter doldrums by shopping. Sure, you really want to be debt free, but it makes you feel a lot better to buy new, shiny things. Clothes, gadgets, shoes, cars! Again – while you dealt with it, things only got worse.
• Perhaps there’s a strained relationship you’ve been “dealing with.” Maybe you haven’t spoken to him or her in so long it feels like trying to connect now would be way too awkward. Or, maybe there was a misunderstanding, and you just walk on egg shells when you’re around him or her so you don’t have to address the real issue.

As with everything else, the longer we wait to actually DO something about it instead of only DEALING with it, the harder it gets and the bigger the mess it can make.

So, what’s the answer then?

Just DO something!

It’s like my spring cleaning. I spent every bit of three hours cleaning yesterday. Dust bunnies had taken up residence in all sorts of places. I didn’t even know bunnies could survive in half those places.

I kept putting off doing something about the need to deep clean until it became a half-day event, requiring way more energy and effort than I really wanted to put into it.

If I had done something every day to address the issues, instead of dealing with them, I could have had a much more pleasant day off.

So, what are you dealing with?

Is it time to DO something about it? Time to stop hoping it will go away and take the initiative to create the change you want to happen?

Remember, if you keep putting it off, it’ll only make it worse. That leaky roof will eventually cave in and cost you a lot more in damages and repairs than you can imagine.

Start today – DO something instead of only DEALING with it.

Your DoAhead Friend,

Adrian