“Being a mom is the hardest job in the world.” I hear this from my mom peeps all the time. Yes, parenting is a challenge, especially in our world today, but isn’t nearly everything?

Going to the grocery store, paying your taxes, buying a new car – all of these things have become more and more difficult through the years as technology improves, choices abound, and our leisure time shrinks. But are we making life harder than it needs to be with our words?

The inspiration for this blog post comes once again from my kids. Both have recently been working on school projects which required a bit of research, a bit of creativity, and a bit of well, work. Notice I didn’t say “hard work.”

In the midst of one of the projects, my daughter said “This is hard.” Really what she meant was that it was A LOT of work. When we broke it down into its components, the project was not difficult; it just had many tasks – none of them qualifying as ‘hard’.

When she started to make her way through each of the steps needed to complete the project, even she was amazed at how simple it was and, that she was able to finish it in a few hours, as opposed to the days she thought it would take to complete.

After it was finished, she said, “This project wasn’t that hard at all.”

So this got me to thinking. How often do we psych ourselves up incorrectly when facing the various challenges in our lives – from work to house projects to parenting? Are they really hard or are they simply “work”.

You may say, “Well, what’s the difference?” Let’s look at an example like cleaning out a closet. Deep breath – stay with me ok?

When you open up the closet and see the mess inside, your first reaction is – “This is going to be really hard.” With those few words, your subconscious mind has agreed with you 100% and therefore, the project MUST become difficult in order for your words to match your thoughts.

But, what if you started the project with this phrase, “This is going to be easy and fun!” What does your subconscious mind do now? It does the same thing it did when you uttered the negative words above. It does not know the difference!

This is an important concept – not only for spring cleaning projects but for all aspects of our lives. If we approach each day, each challenge with the mindset that it’s going to be a rough ride, it will be. However, if we take a different approach and proclaim how easy it’s going to be, we are guaranteed a much more pleasurable experience.

And here’s the kicker – don’t most things that we THINK are hard, actually turn out to be easy? That closet project, once finished and organized, was not really that bad, was it? Yes, it had a lot of steps and it took alot of time, but was it really hard? No, not really.

If you find yourself saying things like “A mother’s job is never done,” or “This house is always a mess,” or “No one ever helps me”, I want to encourage you to examine what you are saying and then make a decision to change your words. That’s right. Just for today, start saying things like “Being a parent is easy,” because your subconscious mind believes you no matter what you say, so why not go with the more positive approach?

I can almost guarantee that you will start to see immediate changes in your parenting journey and your life. Furthermore, your children will also benefit by having a positive mindset when they approach their own challenges, like test preparation or school projects.

Give yourself the gift of positivity today and watch what happens!

Jen’s Gem: Parenting is only as hard as we choose to make it.