Welcome Listeners to the Love Your Story podcast. Today’s episode is a part of a series where I am going into more detail on each of the challenges in my book - LIFE Living Intentional and Fearless Everyday, the 21 Life Connection Challenges.
In episode 89 I went into some wonderful detail about the process of doing Random Acts of Kindness —Challenge # 1 in the 21 Life Connection Challenges— and we did some boots on the ground recording on the RAK night and what they looked like, what popped up for those doing the acts of kindness, and what feelings and thoughts doing the RAK’s generated in those doing them. Responses of those who got the acts of kindness. It’s all a lot less predictable than it sounds.
In episode 164 I went into detail with Ashley Stuart, a de-clutter expert, and we talked about why challenge #2 - to get rid of 1 thing you no longer need - is so much more important than this simple act seems on the surface.
In episode 170 I tackled an in-depth on challenge #3 where we looked at what it really means and looks like to find the lesson in something that doesn’t go your way. Again, great stuff with expert Leslie Householder on finding the gratitude and lesson in our trials or disappointments.
This series of episodes is specifically to delve into why these challenges were included in the book in the first place, by getting into more detail about what they are, having experts weigh in on the ideas, and then showing real life examples.
Tune into the audio because today we are exploring Challenge #4 - it’s a thing I call Success-file.
Let’s jump right in! What is challenge #4?
Challenge #4 is “At the end of the day as you are lying in bed, make a mental list of all the things you accomplished today.” Now stick with me here - I know it seems easy, but some of the best things are!
This is one of my favorite challenges. I call it Success file - which is a play on words - success FUL - Success FILE. It’s one of my favorites because I love doing it. Because it makes me happy and because I get a great deal of satisfaction reliving, even just for a moment, the spaces in which I spent my time.
The way this works is at the end of the day you list - either in your head, or on paper, everything you got done that day. This switches things up a bit, because the natural tendency is to consider and mull over everything we still need to get done and to stress about it as we are falling to sleep. This makes it so our mind can’t slow down which means it takes longer to go to sleep, and then the sleep isn’t as good because your subconscious is concerned with all you still need to do because that’s what you fell asleep thinking about.
With Success Filing you lay in bed and count everything you did that day- “I got up and got out of bed. I had a shower and did my hair and make-up - nice job! I ate something healthy and made sure the kids had breakfast. I got all the kids to school. I did dishes. I had a good talk with a friend. I got to work on time. I sent a positive email. I said my prayers or went over gratitudes, I got caught up on….. you get the idea.
Let’s talk about WHY…
One way that we drive ourselves to overwhelm, stress and anxiety is by harboring a constant focus on what we have not yet accomplished. There will always be more to do, let’s get that out of the way right now. Even when you’re dead there will still be more that could be done, but I think what matters more is what you’ve already done and if you enjoyed that journey. I know that ENJOY THE JOURNEY is a cliche, but it’s a cliche’ because it is used often, and it is used often because it has real meaning.
If we take time to celebrate our wins —the small ones
