I've been feeling rather negative recently.
It's not huge or anything but in the background of my mind there is this little cynical voice telling me the Opposite of what I should be thinking.
It's really getting old.
So I am going to make a conscious effort to focus more on Positives than Negatives. To take that little cynic in my mind and make it eat JOY! Cynicism hates JOY. I need to find the Happy in the moment not just the sad. I need to find the Peace when I may just be feeling MAD. I need to find the Contentment in what I have and the Determination to make life better than I thought it could be.
I'm going through some changes at work, not bad changes but change is hard. I need to embrace the change...isn't that what changing my thinking is all about? I need to take the bull by the horns and embrace the new, deal with the trouble and make it all work.
And I need to get back to blogging about what I am feeling and how I am changing my thinking. I need to get the feelings out and not bottle them up. So here's to Embracing the POSITIVE
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
It's About Being Healthy
The more I think about this journey that I am on this year of changing my thinking I have realized that it really is more than just having a clean house. It's not just changing my thinking about my cleaning processes it's changing the way that I think about my life! I think I have been content for too long to just take life as it comes. To roll with the punches as it were but to always be REACTIVE rather than PROACTIVE.
When you are Reactive you tend to get frustrated easier. You spend your days waiting for the next thing to happen and not to create things that will make your life easier. What's funny for me is that on my working side I work hard at not being reactive but to have meaningful activities that cause me to create the learning environment that I desire for the children in my classroom. Why then can I not seem to do that at home? That's a good question and one that I have been pondering....it seems that since I am good at being Proactive at work I should easily be Proactive at home...but I am not. When I get home I am tired, I am often hungry, I am crabby from the situations that have gone on in the classroom and the last thing I often want to do is doing anything.
So today is Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. I am home from school since its a holiday and working on projects around the house. I need to make a new weekly goal but since I haven't really mastered the first two goals I should get into better habits with them. My desire is to develop GOOD habits but if I rush and take on too much I am afraid that it will be easy to slip back into my really bad habits. I have decided that this will be a Review week...when I teach we have review weeks for the children to reinforce the lessons we have learned. It's a healthy thing to be reviewing...change and learning doesn't happen overnight. It's a process by which we grow and mature...I'm still taking baby steps here...I have a long way to go in my goal and I have a whole year in which to accomplish this goal. We are only 18 days into the new year...I don't have to be perfect or even amazingly better this soon in the process.
I'm a firm believer in the process rather than the product in the classroom. A lot of the art that my students do is not something that I would hang on the walls but it is a skill that they are mastering...they are not going to be great at cuttting with scissors the first day but as time goes by and they master the process of using scissors their cutting skills improve so much. So my process is making sure that I am meeting goals 1 and 2 all this week. If I accomplish some bigger projects as I go along the way that is a benefit but not a neccessity. I will be content with being Proactive in the small things so that I no longer have to Reactive to my life. It's about being healthy in my thinking not just about killing myself for a goal that I think I need to meet quickly.
When you are Reactive you tend to get frustrated easier. You spend your days waiting for the next thing to happen and not to create things that will make your life easier. What's funny for me is that on my working side I work hard at not being reactive but to have meaningful activities that cause me to create the learning environment that I desire for the children in my classroom. Why then can I not seem to do that at home? That's a good question and one that I have been pondering....it seems that since I am good at being Proactive at work I should easily be Proactive at home...but I am not. When I get home I am tired, I am often hungry, I am crabby from the situations that have gone on in the classroom and the last thing I often want to do is doing anything.
So today is Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. I am home from school since its a holiday and working on projects around the house. I need to make a new weekly goal but since I haven't really mastered the first two goals I should get into better habits with them. My desire is to develop GOOD habits but if I rush and take on too much I am afraid that it will be easy to slip back into my really bad habits. I have decided that this will be a Review week...when I teach we have review weeks for the children to reinforce the lessons we have learned. It's a healthy thing to be reviewing...change and learning doesn't happen overnight. It's a process by which we grow and mature...I'm still taking baby steps here...I have a long way to go in my goal and I have a whole year in which to accomplish this goal. We are only 18 days into the new year...I don't have to be perfect or even amazingly better this soon in the process.
I'm a firm believer in the process rather than the product in the classroom. A lot of the art that my students do is not something that I would hang on the walls but it is a skill that they are mastering...they are not going to be great at cuttting with scissors the first day but as time goes by and they master the process of using scissors their cutting skills improve so much. So my process is making sure that I am meeting goals 1 and 2 all this week. If I accomplish some bigger projects as I go along the way that is a benefit but not a neccessity. I will be content with being Proactive in the small things so that I no longer have to Reactive to my life. It's about being healthy in my thinking not just about killing myself for a goal that I think I need to meet quickly.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Motivation
Do you ever need motivation to begin a job you really don't want to tackle? I know I certainly do.
Well this week I got motivation in the least likely of areas and it has turned into a good thing.
Motivator #1...Jaron
Jaron wanted to help clean the living room on Thursday night...more importantly he wanted to vacuum. So he started vacuuming and that's when I discovered the big bad clog. It was his desire to vacuum that really got me to work on fixing it. And I fixed it...I've actually got some mad skills.
Motivator #2...The Remote
Last night, we had takeout for dinner, and after doing a few things and the 3 hours of Super Mario Bros, I decided that the kids needed a break and Dan and I deserved some TV time. We tape some shows during the week to watch together on the weekends and it was nearing bedtime for the kiddos so it was the grown ups turn. The remote is missing. Gone, can't find it...
So for the next hour and a half we go through the living room, putting things away, cleaning behind furniture, cleaning out crumbs and all the bits that can fall into a couch...all to find the remote. We got 3 of the four walls done last night...it needed to be done and since we were moving furniture it was a good time to do it. Still couldn't find the remote. By this time it's getting late and the kids and I are tired...I had already put in a full day at work and just wanted to relax...so Dan jokingly asks...Did you check the kids backpacks...well, I check Jaron's backpack...not there...go into the black hole which is Janea's backpack and BINGO! The lost remote is in there...she had taken it to school.
So my weekly goal of cleaning the living room daily got an extra large shot in the arm. The living room is further along that it was and the missing item is found...all in all a tiring yet productive evening.
Well this week I got motivation in the least likely of areas and it has turned into a good thing.
Motivator #1...Jaron
Jaron wanted to help clean the living room on Thursday night...more importantly he wanted to vacuum. So he started vacuuming and that's when I discovered the big bad clog. It was his desire to vacuum that really got me to work on fixing it. And I fixed it...I've actually got some mad skills.
Motivator #2...The Remote
Last night, we had takeout for dinner, and after doing a few things and the 3 hours of Super Mario Bros, I decided that the kids needed a break and Dan and I deserved some TV time. We tape some shows during the week to watch together on the weekends and it was nearing bedtime for the kiddos so it was the grown ups turn. The remote is missing. Gone, can't find it...
So for the next hour and a half we go through the living room, putting things away, cleaning behind furniture, cleaning out crumbs and all the bits that can fall into a couch...all to find the remote. We got 3 of the four walls done last night...it needed to be done and since we were moving furniture it was a good time to do it. Still couldn't find the remote. By this time it's getting late and the kids and I are tired...I had already put in a full day at work and just wanted to relax...so Dan jokingly asks...Did you check the kids backpacks...well, I check Jaron's backpack...not there...go into the black hole which is Janea's backpack and BINGO! The lost remote is in there...she had taken it to school.
So my weekly goal of cleaning the living room daily got an extra large shot in the arm. The living room is further along that it was and the missing item is found...all in all a tiring yet productive evening.
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