A Little Perspective

So, this past weekend I was completely freaking out at the state of my house. It is beyond a wreck! When you have two people who work full time and a little bit who can undo faster than you can do, it can be an uphill battle. To add to that my hubby and I are not the neatest people anyways. We both can be messy in our own ways, but never as bad as it is these days.

While I was having my massive panic attack regarding the house, I stopped and sat down completely overwhelmed and then asked myself "what is going to happen if I don't get all this done today?" The answer is nothing. The sky is not going to fall. The world is not going to end. Their is not going to be any major travesty. Yep, I may be a bit annoyed by the clutter and if someone stops by I'll be embarrassed.

Once I realized that, I was much less overwhelmed and able to make progress cleaning up. My house is still a wreck, but I have a much better perspective on the situation, which has helped me tip my happy scale back in the right direction.

Have a great day!

4th of July Happy Day

Today was a great day. It was one of those busy days that by the end you feel like you have accomplished a lot and also managed to have fun. As a result it turned out to be a really happy day.

A lot of times, even when I'm looking forward to an activity, if I know it is going to be mentally or physically exhausting I tend to dread it at first. Heck, there have been times where I may have even tried to get out of the task if at all possible. However, these days, getting out of it doesn't even cross my mind. That doesn't mean it's always easy to get my lazy behind up and in gear, but now that I keep my happy scale in mind I can recognize activities that I know will make me happy in the end and thus it's easier to get moving.

Today I woke up started making desserts for a family get together. Once I finished that I started to fall into lazy mode. The next task on the agenda was loading the family and going to pick up a very heavy bed thus it meant brief manual labor on my part in hot sun. However, this isn't just any bed, it is a special bed for my little girl handmade by her Papa. It's supper cute and my little girl was super excited to get it. So excited this very minute she is sound asleep in her room in that bed. She never wants to sleep in her room. For the past month she has slept in the guest room, any room but hers until tonight. So, I knew that considering how special this bed was, although I was not motivated to do the physical work associated with the task, the end result would be much happiness. Needless to say, I got up, got moving and it was well worth it.

After we finished the manual labor part of our morning, and I do mean right after as in within minutes, we headed off to the beach for a family gathering. We got there just in time for the rain to clear up, to have a shrimp boil, and to then enjoy the water with the kids. It was so much fun. I love watching people I love having fun, especially my daughter. Let me tell you, she had a blast! It was fantastic. Her and her cousins were just adorable together. 

It doesn't sound like all that spectacular of a day, but it was. It was just one of those rewarding days. And now, if my daughter will sleep in until eight tomorrow we will be off to the start of another happy day. Talk about tipping the happy scale! I'm thinking I can keep dreaming about little bit sleeping until eight. I honestly can't remember the last time she did that at home. Oh well, I can't lie no matter how early it is, when I see that little smiling face come creeping down the hall in the morning, it always makes me smile. So no matter how tired I am, it is always a happy day when it starts with one of her smiles. 

Fear of Failure

Wednesday I talked about how important it is to step outside our comfort zone. Well, I'll be the first to recognize that sometimes that is easier said than done. I have failed many times in my life, however I always get back up and try again. It's not always easy to try again. Sometimes it is just plain hard to get back up and try.

Today I am actually dealing with this in my own life.  In the book The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin talks about setting and telling yourself you only have to do something for a few minutes in order to get motivated. Often once the allotted time runs out, you don't want to stop what you dreaded starting. This is the technique I am testing in order to overcome my fears related to a little project I want to work on but can't get myself to do.

I set my clock timer to go off in one hour. During that time I worked on my project.  As it turns out I actually did work on the project I've been avoiding for more than an hour.  This seems to have worked for today. Surprise surprise I actually had fun.

If we don't try we will always wonder "what if?" What is worse, knowing the answer or not knowing the answer?