Gratitude Challenge 3/30: Color

 

I snapped this picture on the way out the door this morning (hence the fog and skeletal dog). This is one of my favorite little corners of the house. I absolutely love the orange chairs, and now with the green plants it's the most delightful little happy when I walk down the stairs first thing in the morning. 

My decorating style has always been a little "give me the big box of crayons with the built-in sharpener" but when it comes together like this it really makes my heart sing. If you want to play along tell me what colors you're grateful for today! 

Gratitude Challenge 2/30: Optimism

I found myself wanting to be sarcastic on this one, and showing a picture of a laundry basket or a lunchbox full of vegetables, but the truth is that I really do consider my optimism to be one of my strengths. The other night I was talking to Eli and I described myself as "an aggressive optimist" and I love it and now I'm going to trademark the brand.

Aggressive optimism is the steadfast belief that everything is going to work out. which has thus far turned out pretty well. I've made a lot of choices that, logically speaking, didn't make a ton of sense. It got me married at 22 and immediately moving to Oregon, where we didn't know a soul but had some of the best adventures. It moved us to a town none of us had ever been to in California, and then ultimately to Sacramento. It got us this big fancy house with it's pool and ridiculous blue carpet and hot mess kitchen. It got me a grad school baby (which on paper is a ludicrous idea but in practice was pretty awesome), an early career baby (first day of work 5 months pregnant is a great way to make an impression), and our funny little third baby that has me excitedly slowing down to assess the state of decomposition when I pass roadkill. In fact, it's worked out so many times that I *may* have "Fuck it" tattooed on my body as a reminder that it's not a terrible approach to decision making. 

Aggressively optimistic that this hike in a downpour would be fine. It was probably not the safest choice, but it ended up being one of my favorite memories from the entire trip :) 

30 day Gratitude Challenge 1/30

I've always been tempted by the NaBloPoMo trend but the idea of coming up with something to write about every single day has always felt insanely overwhelming. Sarah though clued me in to the Positively Present Gratitude Challenge over on Instagram that seemed like a perfect opportunity to both inspire me to post with more frequency AND focus on those things that I am grateful and appreciative of. I'm going to give it a shot. If I bomb, then I'll revise this intro to be something about self-compassion and reasonable expectations. Act surprised! 

Words

We recently switched insurance providers and with that, had to re-establish with a new doctor. We're not really "go to the doctor" people, so there was expectedly some delayed maintenance issues. I was messaging with him about my progress on specifically my weight/diet and he responded with, "Great job! I'm really proud of you!" 

Whoah. I am 40  41 years old. I have a doctorate and a mortgage and a marriage that is old enough to vote. I don't typically suffer from insecurity (at least not outwardly) and I've managed to keep myself alive long enough that I'm fairly confident in my abilities as a functioning human. And yet? Hearing someone say, "I'm proud of you" about something that I worked hard on was a gut punch in the best possible way. 

C got a similar response from him at a follow-up visit after he worked his ass off (quite literally, actually) after getting the diagnosis of diabetes. He knew, because he is a functioning adult, that doing healthy things is the right thing to do, but hearing someone recognize that? Game. Changer. 

So for today's challenge, I'm grateful for people who use their words to recognize people's efforts. Part of becoming an adult is building your intrinsic motivation, and that's great and important and all that, but it doesn't mean that words of affirmation or a sticker don't really drive the point home sometimes. 

Play along! I'd love to hear what words have made an impact in your life lately. Or alternatively, what is your favorite word? I love a good vocabulary word!