I’m definitely the kind of person who aligns my self worth with how productive I am every day. It’s not mentally healthy, but it’s my truth. At the end of the day I tend to focus on everything left undone rather than recognizing all of the things I accomplished. Sometimes I combat this by making a “ta da” list.
Yesterday was such a day. Zoe has been sick, so I stayed home from work and kept her home from school. In the morning, I thought, “This will be good! I can get so much stuff done on this unexpected day off!” Then the day went on, and I didn’t get everything done that I thought I would. A lot of the things I worked on didn’t have visual evidence of my effort, and that’s one factor that makes me feel unaccomplished - it’s very different when you tackle a task that you can see.
In the afternoon, I was telling a friend how much I didn’t get done, but then I started telling her the things I did get done. I realized I’d actually done a lot and wasn’t giving myself the proper credit, so I sat down and made my “ta da” list:
Cleaned out the fridge
Put together senior gifts for the boys tennis team
Pulled a garbage bag’s worth of weeds in the backyard
Washed and vacuumed the van
Reconciled the budget
Cleaned the downstairs bathroom
Ordered groceries from Walmart (and then put them away after they got delivered)
Showered and shaved
Got a bunch of garbage out of the house (mostly Easter junk)
Watered the indoor plants
Baked a double batch of muffins to freeze
Helped eight teens and one assistant principal complete the latest ice bucket challenge
Turns out, I got plenty of stuff done and have no reason to fret or feel guilty. I just need to focus more on “ta da” and less on “to do.”
Ta da! Senior gifts for the tennis team.
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