18 Months of Death by Tedium

By Katie Vrajich

The day after college graduation would have been the beginning of the end for me. Death by tedium. You see, I’ve always been a high achiever. School came very naturally to me and I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment that came with good grades. I worked hard constantly toward the goal of graduating from college. Then I did.

I was pregnant with our first son when I graduated and we had always agreed that I would stay home with our children, so I didn’t get a job. I started my career as domestic engineer instead.

Having my son was amazing and so exciting and I had a lot to get used to. But by about 6 months the tediousness set in. I was content with my life and thoroughly enjoyed spending so much time with my son, but as a person I felt such stagnation! I did all I knew about at the time, like going to church and reading my scriptures and setting goals and exercising. But the feeling inside of me rarely changed from “BLAH.”

Then I found Leslie’s work. I read The Jackrabbit Factor and immediately my life changed. I started implementing things the same day.

The question “what do you want” was beautiful and so foreign to me. I thought that what I wanted didn’t matter anymore. I had no idea what I wanted, so it was hard to find, but I searched anyway. A few days into my jackrabbit journey, as I call it, I went into the living room of my dingy apartment to tell my husband something. I got to the side of the couch and was so absolutely overcome with joy and gratitude that I literally fell to my knees and started crying. I was physically compelled to kneel right there and thank God for the amazing gift He had given me.

What was so amazing and exhilarating? Progress. Forward progress for me as a person.

The reason it was so amazing has to do with the Law of Rhythm. By law there is a rhythm in life. There are ups and downs and in-betweens. The part that feels so joyful is the change in direction. Even if it is from horizontal to an upswing, that is still a change in direction that feels great! If I didn’t have a down then I wouldn’t have been able to feel my upswing.

I will never forget the feeling that I had that night and it was worth 18 months of death by tedium. I’ve had plateaus since then, or little breaks in the upward progress, and it is great, because when I start progressing again I can feel the shift in direction and it is invigorating. Each new awakening takes me a little higher.

This is a great tool to use when circumstances aren’t looking the way you want them. You can be excited that a turn upward is coming soon and it will be exhilarating! Look for that upswing with joy and faith and it will come faster. Rhythm is essential to life and it is what makes life fun!

To Success!