14 Important Life Lessons You Only Learn By Accident

11. Mop From The Middle

Of the chores we are tasked with as children, mopping was something no one in my house was ever assigned. I grew up with three siblings, all of whom were older, but we were never asked to mop. We would be told to vacuum, naturally, because who can mess up moving around a large machine that sucks dirt from a soft surface? (besides me?). It wasn't until the first time that I mopped that I discovered why my parents didn't have enough faith in me or my counterparts to give me the task: it's really easy to forget that mopping floors makes them wet. Well, that part is easy to remember, but the real challenge comes in defining an exit strategy. Sometimes in life, we get so caught up in doing a task that we forget how important it is think through the entire process. If we simply acknowledged that mopping from the sides would trap us, then we'd create a strategy that would prevent us from sitting alone in the middle of the floor for two hours.