Small Successes
It’s February, friends, and that means we’ve been living the dream for over a month now. Our new year’s resolutions have magically transformed our lives. Right? or not so much?
February is one of those in between months. Still winter, but almost spring. Still early in the year, but not the start of a new year. This is the month when the best of intentions seem to slip away. As resolutions slip, too often emotions of guilt, doubt, and frustration emerge. Sadly, these emotions seem to notoriously compound upon one another, leaving resolutions in the dust…
This year we’d like to propose a new way to each of you:
We were struck by the writing of a well known parenting writer in early January as she responded to a reader’s new year’s resolution to no longer yell at her children. Recognizing that this may represent a significant change in behaviour, her compassionate and practical suggestion was “How about if you don’t yell at your children in the morning?”
Now the ideal, of course, is for all of us to never yell at our children. Reality? Most parents slip. Some days are harder than others. We are all learning, creating new patterns as parents and human beings, and change is not easy.
If, by chance, your resolution has already slipped by the wayside, we invite you to be gentle on yourself. Is your resolution perhaps a bit grand? Rather than feel guilty, how about modifying it to be a bit more manageable? Leave yourself room for a hard day, or a hard week for that matter. Create small successes, and you might just find they start making room for bigger change around the corner.
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Where are you in your grand vision of change for the new year?
Share your small successes here!
