Finding Happiness In Taking Care of Business

Last updated on January 22nd, 2019 at 02:08 pm

I am finally back in my little historic city of Troy, New York after a few weeks away. I was lucky enough to get to spend a few weeks on the southern Jersey shore with my adorable niece and nephews, who were visiting from Argentina.

Now’s it back to “real life,” which for me right now means focusing on the growth of my life coaching, writing, and public speaking business; getting my commercial property rented and developed, which is an ongoing project; and “taking care of business,” which includes dealing with my finances, getting a new car, and more.

I am finding happiness right now in taking care of all the little details that need to happen in order for me to have my financial house and life totally in order. I know that no one loves waiting in line at the DMV, but I’m honestly finding satisfaction in checking everything off my list that needs to be done in order to make my life feel totally organized and on track right now.

I know it may not sound sexy, but indulge me! I actually love the business of “adulating” sometimes, because it’s a reminder that I graduated years ago from having anyone else control my life. Since I am self-employed as well, I’m in charge of all aspects of my life and business, and while that can feel like an awesome responsibility on some days, on most days I’m simply thankful.

Getting Stuff Done Feels Great!

I’d be lying if I said that cleaning, laundry, organizing and paying bills were my absolute favorite activities. However, when you’ve just come home after three lovely vacation weeks on the road, they are absolutely necessary.

Yesterday was an unpacking and laundry day, and I was lucky enough to be able to work from home and just focus on what needed to be done. I have been putting off organizing my walk-in closet in my bedroom for what feels like forever, so I tackled that too, adding to the mountains of laundry on my bed waiting to be washed and folded.

Since I live by myself, I am the only one available to take care of household duties. The bad news is that the cleaning all rests on my shoulders.

The good news is that I live in a lovely 2,000 penthouse apartment in a grand historic mansion built in 1853, located on a private park, within walking distance of the downtown. I have eight closets, including the walk-in closet in my spacious bedroom.

It’s a shoe and clothing lovers dream, since I literally have a costume closet, a business suit closet, a winter closet, a coat closet, and of course my bedroom walk-in closet, with enough wrap-up around shelving for all of my many pairs of high-heeled shoes.

It’s a privilege of course to have this much space, and specifically this much storage space, in a large apartment that I have all to myself. However, it also means that it’s easy to accumulate clothes and maybe a little harder to make myself get rid of clothes I am no longer wearing, because I definitely have enough space to store everything, whether I am wearing it or not!

Taking Care of Business

Being back home in New York also means paying property taxes this month, getting my tax extension filed for 2015, and dealing with buying a new car. My car was totaled this month in a freak accident, and although I am thankfully fine, my car has gone on to the car graveyard.

Again, these are “grown-up responsibilities” that may not sound fun or sexy, but I’m honestly appreciative to own a home, to have a car to replace, and just to be happy, healthy and walking around after a terrifying car wreck.

The first few days back home have been all about attending to these details, and getting the rest of life in order. It feels good to know that one by one, I’m checking items off my list.

Rolling With It Even When Life Gets Complicated

I’m proud of myself too that probably thanks to a decade of daily meditation, I am relaxed even though things have not necessarily gone smoothly for me lately. Besides the car wreck, I realized when returning to New York that one of my family members inadvertently took the power cord charger for my Mac Air computer.

Normally, this would not be a big deal since I could just drive to the Apple store, and buy a new one. But since I am also temporarily carless, getting a charger for my laptop suddenly turned into a project.

Luckily, I have great friends, and as soon as I put it out there on Facebook that I need a charger, one immediately offered to buy me one and have it shipped to me via her Amazon Prime account. I am paying her back for it, of course, but this saved me a good $60 for starters.

And, I said a prayer yesterday that I would bump into someone in the local cafe where I was working on my phone doing emails who would have a Mac Air charger that I could use for long enough to charge up my computer. Not only did I bump into someone who had a Mac Air charger, but she just happened to be one of my best friends locally who had also been traveling for a while.

It was great to reconnect, and fun to see that she ended up being the answer to my prayer!

Almost There! 

One by one, I’ve been ticking things off my list, and I’m just about caught up. It feels great to be home, to have a clean apartment and clean laundry, to have my closets at least a bit more organized than they were, and to know that I’m making progress on getting my taxes dealt with and buying a new car.

Getting all of these things done will also mean that next week I can refocus on growing my own business again. Sometimes, we just need to clean up all the little messy life details before we can really dive in and focus on our passions again.

I’m excited to make the most of the rest of this summer, and to move my business and commercial property forward. And, I’m happy to have spent these first two days back just dealing with all that needed to get done in order to make that possible.

What messy little life details could you clean up to give you a free and clear path to create whatever you want to create next? Good luck checking things off your list!

Get it done! It feels amazing. Happiness is found in living a good life and sometimes it just means doing whatever work needs to be done.