So, the task I set myself was to clean the outside windows of the house – I hadn’t done it for months and the hot dry summer we had with many a Saharan plume hitting the UK left lots of fine dust to get rid of and not to mention the couple of windows that the birds singled out for bombing practice!
I told my wife about the task, and she promptly cleaned all the inside of the windows without breaking sweat which took her a couple of hours.
Of course, my task was much bigger and I needed the right tools for the job but I thought I would knock it out in a couple of hours too!
I read the task every day and checked the weather – it was going to be fine on Saturday, so I put that down as the day for it. Saturday afternoon came and after I had finished my tutoring I got straight out with the ladder, bucket of soapy water, kitchen roll, and Karcher window cleaner.
I was only just smart enough to work out that I needed to do the upper windows before the lower ones but not before I had done one lower side of the house first.
I was really pleased that my beautiful wife was out for the day as I was left to my own devices to just get on with the task – first hurdle, the Karcher ran out of charge and I couldn’t find the charger. I rang Kate but she didn’t know either she usually knows where everything is but not today!
Oh well quick trip into town for a squeegee blade and I couldn’t make my mind up which one would be best – the shop assistant was very good why don’t you get them all, try them out and laughed!
I chose 2 they were only a couple of quid each, but I was happy I had because one of them wasn’t good, however the little pink one was fabulous! I learnt later we already had one of those under the sink – under the sink, that’s not somewhere I go often!
I battled on with the windows – I had been given clear instructions to clean all the frames and remove the spider nests. Kate has a thing about spiders which only got worse when I told her that the indoor ones if they are thirsty at night, will suck saliva from the corner of your mouth! Science is my thing, but I still can’t seem to keep some of it to myself.
The windows were becoming my Nemesis – The red circle of the sun was setting, and I was only about halfway round and I couldn’t really see anymore if the glass was clean or not. I hadn’t banked on the difficulty of removing dried on bird love or the clingy spider nests.
Never mind I still had all day Sunday and Kate would be home soon anyway – best pack up for the day.
Sunday morning was lovely and sunny, so I got straight to work again on the task only 30 of the 47 windows left to do and the wonderful thing was I now had a professional on hand to give me suggestions – she was happy with the clean glass.
Not so happy with the cloths that I was using to dry off the frames – four of the soft black hand towels from the bathroom which worked so well.
I was told that my choice in the cloth department could have been better as well as enquiring how I made it through a day – well I think those were the words she said, something like that anyway.
6 hours later when I thought I had finished it was also pointed out that I had missed the Velux windows on the roof – I was very happy she pointed them out because they had been neglected and I wanted to do a complete task – dried on lichen meant the last 2 windows took another hour!
There were a few wonderful things that came out of this monster task as I had plenty of time to think about the MKE and my DMP.
Firstly, when I was running round the garden celebrating my success, I realised it wasn’t about the task it was about the fact that I had read it every day, had completed it, and set up connections that would help me get things done in the future and boy did that celebration feel good.
I hadn’t realised the significance of the task in the previous MKEs that I have been a part of. Its not about the task.
I can still feel the elation of completing the job.
Secondly, I now must change my DMP to include the money that means I can afford a window cleaner every time they need doing.
Finally, I could be happy that “I” was controlling my body and mind and that I could tap into that to achieve anything I wanted. It was a freeing moment, and I was starting to let go.
Roll on Sunday
I enjoyed much reading your blog Paul! Thank you for sharing your adventure completing your service for the week. Great insights you got there!
Look how much good came out of that chore (I mean service), Paul. Way to go!
Great post, Paul. It seems to me that you are spot on-the gold is in adopting the process of habit forming not the task itself. Excellent headline-Iook forward to more in your “confessions” series 🙂
Who would have thought window cleaning could be such an adventure, Paul. Your blog is twice as long as any I’ve read to date. Good job! 🙂
That’s awesome Paul! What a great story and it illustrates perfectly the MKE principles. Way to go!
I could picture you clearly as you went on to do what you set out to do, congratulations on getting it done.