Perhaps by calling it Sharkie Poo, it was a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. All seven dogs have a nickname – Millie is Millie Vanilli, Noodle, Silly Millie…I’ll spare you the rest; you get the drift. It only felt fair and proper to give the Shark Robot a similar name; after all, he is now part of the family, and quite frankly, he’s pulling more weight than the rest of these freeloaders.
Sharkie Poo was not a cheap investment, but I thought I needed help, and perhaps the 10 minutes I spent vacuuming every day could be spent doing something much more worthwhile. Maybe knitting, crocheting (are these different?), reading that leadership book sitting on my nightstand for the last 356 days, or a dozen other things.
Do we ever really use the extra time we manage to free up to do something “meaningful?” Why do we feel like we have to? I really hate the voice inside my head. It’s constantly telling me I need to read that book versus take that nap or to spend my Saturday tackling this work thing instead of sitting on a patio with friends enjoying our very short Michigan summer. The guilt is real.
I could go into the psychology behind it, but I’m not qualified, so I’ll just say it’s time to reclaim our brains and silence the shitty, mean voice telling us we’re not good enough. I read a portion of the book “Solve for Happy.” It’s still staring at me from my nightstand, but the one major takeaway was that the voice is NOT you; it’s negative, mean, and serves no purpose other than to make us feel like absolute shit. It is not our conscience; it is our fears, failures, and worries attacking us at our most vulnerable. Fuck that guy.
So, if you happen to be lucky enough to bring a Sharkie Poo into your life, do whatever you want with those extra 10 minutes in your day.
However, if you have dogs, make sure Sharkie Poo runs with supervision cause you never know what extra nuggets are waiting around to be vacuumed up. Before you know it, the 10 minutes you saved just turned into hours cleaning your carpet and hosing down Sharkie Poo.
