It's all well and good to have thought through our roles and defined our success. But it will mean little if we don't take time to recognize success when we achieve it.
One effective way to recognize our successes is to journal regularly about them. Another way is to enlist a cheerleader. Maybe not the screaming, dancing, pom-pom waving kind, but pretty close.
Success Journaling
Journaling can be tough. It’s just “one more thing.” But it is one of the things that will have a bigger impact. It’s what I like to call a “high-leverage activity.”
The ideal is to journal every day. But if you have a hard time making time for daily journaling, give yourself permission to do it just a few times a week, or even once a week. Even a little bit on a regular basis is better than nothing at all.
Another way to make journaling more achievable is to limit your entries. One of the best journals we have ever kept in our family was a one-sentence journal in which we wrote one, maybe two sentences a day. It seemed small, but it’s amazing how much was captured in just a few sentences, and how deeply meaningful it is now to look back on those entries.
Something that can make the journaling experience more useful and meaningful is to focus on writing about key roles. Lately, I have been experimenting with writing one or two sentences about each of my top four or five roles every day. As I have done this, I have become more aware of what I am doing well (successes) and important areas where I need to improve.
One of the best ways to be successful and recognize your success in any role is to journal about it. The role of homemaker and many of the roles surrounding it (such as family roles) is very hard to evaluate for success if we don’t take time to clarify our purpose (as we did in previous lessons) and then stop to recognize when we do make progress and do achieve our goals. While you won’t get a raise, a bonus, a promotion, or anything like that in the homemaking career, your journal can give you the pat on the back you need by helping you stop to recognize what is going well, and by reminding you of where you have been and how far you have come.
Journaling is a big part of personal organization because it involves reflecting on and learning from your best teachers: yourself and God.
If you’re like me, though, you may need some additional motivation and some better ideas to help you believe in journaling enough to make the effort. So here are two excellent articles on the subject:
If you don’t have time to read this whole really cool article, just read the headings. Even that much will be motivating: https://www.success.com/blog/28-ways-keeping-a-daily-journal-could-change-your-life
Ideas for simplifying journaling and reasons why you should journal:
https://gregmckeown.com/blog/one-thing-productive-people-reaching-phones/
A classic gospel perspective on journaling:
https://www.lds.org/new-era/2003/02/the-angels-may-quote-from-it?lang=eng
For this article, just replace “business” with the role of your choice (for example, replace “business owners” with “parents” or “homemakers”): https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/21/how-journaling-is-important-to-success.html
Cheerleader Enlisting
My husband does a great job at voluntarily commenting on my homemaking success from time to time. His ability to recognize and express appreciation for my efforts is tremendously valuable to me and to our relationship. Having someone who sees my efforts, benefits from them, and says thank you really helps me recognize my success. Thank you Jared for doing that for me.
Jared frequently does this on his own because he's that wonderful. But sometimes, I need a "go you" and he doesn't know it. Does this mean he's insensitive? No. It just means he can't read my mind. I have learned that it's ok to ask him for positive feedback sometimes, and he is happy to oblige. It's ok to cue the cheer squad.
My point is, you can own how important and helpful external recognition is to you. And you can take steps to make sure you get that recognition. If it's helpful to you, ask someone sympathetic to be part of your homemaking cheer team, and return the favor. That's what friends are for.
Sometimes I ask God how I'm doing. I am often amazed at how encouraged I feel when I do this. God is a great person to have on the cheer team.
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