Why it’s Not Okay to Have a Bare Minimum Attitude

Now before I tell my story, I want you to know that this was a lesson to me because I have been guilty of doing the bare minimum at work and in housekeeping lately.

Sometimes I feel guilty about it.

Just checking the boxes is how I get by, and sometimes that’s how it has to be.

It all started as I was flying home yesterday afternoon, as a result of some bad weather flight delays.

My flight from Florida to North Carolina was forty minutes late. Just as my first flight was pulling into the gate, my Charlotte to Baltimore flight was shutting its doors and scrapping me from the passenger list.

Disappointment set in as I began to realize I’d missed my flight, and there were no more flights to the D.C. area last night.

It wasn’t just me either. It seemed like the entire Charlotte airport, thousands of passengers, were stranded and stressed.

Thankfully, I have a proactive, caring, and helpful husband who secured me one of the last airport area hotel rooms available. As my kids would say, Alan really came in clutch for me.

Plus, I got a flight for this morning, so I was only displaced for a night. That’s not too bad.

I was so relieved to have a hotel to go to.

Alan found me a suite with a king bed. Heck yeah! Not too shabby for April!

The hotel even ran their airport shuttle one last time, at 11:20 pm, to pick up two other guests and me from the airport, per Alan’s request. And when I say Alan’s request, I do mean Alan begging them on the phone. Ha! What would I do without Alan?

It was nice hotel. They had everything I needed. Most importantly, I had a cozy bed to sleep in with a clean bathroom and a locked door. Happy, happy, happy.

It was a late night, and I didn’t go to sleep until about 2am because it’s just hard to go to sleep after such a crazy day. Plus, I’m not used to being alone in a hotel. It feels so weird.

At 7:30 this morning, my cell phone alarm went off. This particular alarm was the song “White Christmas,” so I had that in my head all morning. I have no memory of why White Christmas is my alarm song for 7:30 am.

In the morning light, the hotel itself didn’t seem as nice as it did the night before.

The room had no kind of coffee pot, not even a cheapie one. No worries, I thought, I’ll get coffee in the lobby. The ad said they have free breakfast.

I am not a morning person, and I am extremely dedicated, or addicted, or whatever you want to call it, to my morning cup of energy. I washed last night’s mascara off my under-eyes, grabbed my room key, and groggily headed downstairs in search of caffeine.

The hotel and I both looked a little more old and worn in the morning.

The wall paint and carpet in the hallways showed more wear and tear than you usually see, and there was a big bare dry wall spot by the elevator. Someone scrawled the b-word on the dry wall in pencil. “Classy,” I thought.

Downstairs I managed to find the big coffee dispenser. They had plenty of cups and coffee creamers too. Hurray!

I put my cup under the spout, it began to pour, and for a second I thought we were good here. Birds were chirping in my head, and all was right in the neighborhood.

Then it stopped. It was out of coffee.

Thankfully, the receptionist saw my problem, came and got the pot, and took it to the kitchen to make more coffee. I sat down to wait. It was a big pot though, so it took a long time.

It took so long, I finally walked over and asked when she thought the coffee might be ready. I did ask in the perkiest morning voice I could muster, and I smiled. It was a fake smile, but it was the best I could manage.

“I don’t know,” she answered flatly. I guess the she wasn’t a morning person either.

The only person in this hotel with any people skills was the van driver from the night before. I went back up to my room, re-packed my bag, then headed back down to wait out this coffee.

Good news. The receptionist walked up with the coffee at the same time I reentered the lobby. It was super strong coffee, so I drowned it in creamer, and life was looking up.

I decided to walk over to the “free breakfast” area and check it out. They had a banana, three oranges, two cereal dispensers, a bunch of cartons of milk, four muffins, and two pitchers of juice.

Ah yes. Free breakfast. Well, I guess that’s really not that unusual for a free breakfast.

There was no breakfast staff. The receptionist was running it all plus the desk herself, so I guess that does sort of explain the running out of coffee at 7:45, the frowning face, and the low breakfast inventory.

She wasn’t happy about life. I saw her deal with many people. She never broke a smile.

By eight forty-five a.m., I was sitting in the lobby, sipping my coffee and waiting for shuttle time.

I didn’t even have my phone out. Instead, I was content to sit and observe my surroundings. The desk clerk never did crack a smile with anyone. The well dressed janitor was busy at his work, mopping the high traffic lobby in the middle of it all. He never smiled either.

I wondered what was going on at this place that made the employees seem so miserable.

Many mental notes were made that morning. I was so determined that I would learn from this.

I vowed to myself that when I returned home, I would no longer be doing a bare minimum job for my blog and my housekeeping. No, sir! From now on, I am going to approach all of life with enthusiasm!

Well, that was all well and good until Saturday dawned. I was back in my comfortable home, and I was rather tired.

I looked around at all of the housekeeping I could be doing. There are so many chores. Plus, there’s packing to do, meals to be made, and two websites to run.

But I tell ya. I did not want to do any of it. Sitting on the sofa seemed more my speed.

What if I am just as lazy and unenthused about life as the people who run that hotel!?? Am I?

Well, yeah, okay. Yes, I am. However, I still feel like there’s a lesson to be learned here.

You know, it wasn’t the dirty walls, the missing paint, or the small breakfast that bothered me most about my morning at the hotel. Yes, at the time it felt like they did the bare minimum for us in the morning, but I am not unlike that at my house.

The late coffee was a bummer though.

What truly bothered me were the frowning, stern faces of the hotel employees.

So I’ve decided the lesson to learn here is maybe we can only do so much. However, let’s do it with some pep and a smile.

Let’s not have a bare minimum attitude.

Their hotel had every single thing I needed, but it had no cheer.

I don’t want our home to feel like we have everything we need, but no cheer. Life isn’t a list of boxes to check. It’s about how we treat each other.

I may not be able to run all of my responsibilities at top caliber level, but I absolutely can have a positive attitude. I can serve my family with kindness, compassion, and authenticity.

A smile and a bit of hope go a long way. The tone of our interactions with each other make our day fun, comforting, stressful, lonely, or dreary. I want my tone to be one people can relate to, a person you don’t have to dread asking a question. I want to be an encourager.

Did I dust my whole house this morning and bring in fresh flowers from my non-existent garden? No, I did not. I did the bare minimum of chores, played a game on my phone, and ran errands, to be honest.

But I did not nag any family members over their shortcomings or send anyone to school without a smile. I think those things are of the utmost importance.

And of course, one can also not overlook the importance of having the coffee ready in the morning. Thank the Lord, I have Alan, who makes sure we have hot coffee every morning here.

I wish you all a wonderful week, with all the coffee and smiles you need!