Why is it our minds focus on the negative things and ignores the positive? We could have 10,000 positive reviews and only see the one person who says our product is a waste of space.
It’s even worse when that product is ourselves.
For the past three weeks, I’ve worked on personal growth. Technically, I’ve been working on it for 26 years but the past three weeks I have become diligent about setting weekly goals and pushing myself to meet them.
So far, I’ve done pretty well. Not perfect, but I’d definitely get a B in the class.
I’ve gotten to work before 10 most days (my boss wants me in around 9:30 to 10:30 so 9:30 is the main goal but I don’t punish myself if it’s before 10 since it’s all about the progress.) I haven’t eaten out more than once a week, forcing me to make my breakfast and lunch ahead of time and get creative for dinner. I have worked on setting an in-bed time to help me with mornings better and have strived this week to not spend more than $30 and go to the gym (or walk around the neighborhood) twice.
And let me tell you, I’ve been so proud of myself. I know those seem like simple things. I know they probably aren’t super impressive to most of the world but for me? For this ADHD-ridden mind who has never been able to stick to anything? I’m ecstatic.
The most important thing has been giving myself a little wiggle room for mistakes. Yes I want to get to work at 9:30 every morning but my goal is for four of the five workdays. That way, if I oversleep once, it’s not the end of the world. Truthfully, my goal is to not eat out at all, but I have one chance to bend the rules each week. Knowing I’m restricted to one makes me think on Monday night if that burger is worth it, knowing there are five more days I might forget my lunch or need to grab dinner on my way to a last-second meeting.
The biggest thing? Not letting the haters get me down. Specifically: my coworker. Weeks of being proud for coming in on time were washed away when I was having an extremely rough mental morning and didn’t go in until noon. A pass by my desk with a “Look who came in early!” comment added to the rough mental day. Who cares that I had been doing great? Who cares if my other coworkers and my boss and myself were proud of what I was doing? This one person made one comment that didn’t leave my mind the rest of the week.
So what did another coworker do? She reminded me to stop caring. Who cares if this one chick has nothing better than be a smartass? She doesn’t know what I’m going through. She doesn’t understand the journey I’ve been on or the grains of sand to her that are mountains to me. She reminded me to not let the bastards grind me down (legitimately printed that quote and taped it to my computer for the world to see.)
And she’s right. Why does it matter if she isn’t impressed in me? I’m impressed by me and that’s worth so much more in my mind.
I’ll talk more on goal-making in the future but I want to know: what have you done recently that impressed yourself? It could be anything from cooking a meal for the first time in a month to balancing a spoon on your nose. Comment below and let me know!