“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
~ Jalal ad-Din Rum
Toilet Time
As someone who runs a small business with 5 employees, we're fortunate that we will only take on projects that we think will have a genuine positive impact. But running a company,
most of my thoughts are consumed by time, deadlines and meetings, which is hilarious - my perception of time is so bad I often wonder if I was meant to have been born Tibetan.
But with thoughts so consumed by time, it can feel like the heart and soul of our work can be lost.
This week was cleaning bathroom time, and at the moment I had finished whizzing around to do a quick clean of the bathroom so I could get back to thinking about what to do with the remaining time I had in the evening that would be productive, I paused.
Everyone uses this bathroom. I want it to be nice for everyone when they come in and even something as simple as a cleaner bathroom can give a more positive experience.
I pushed away the thoughts of a lack of time, and started cleaning again, this time with more heart to make a good job for everyone. And then I noticed that instead of being so preoccupied, I was enjoying the experience of cleaning...toilets.
I took a step back when I finished, and feeling a sense of joy that other people would have a better experience in the morning, before noticing how much better and calmer I felt from having given a menial task more effort, more heart and completing with a mindset of benefiting others.
Thank-you boring bathroom duty for your valuable lesson. Until we meet again in 4 weeks.