What do you count as success?

*guest blogger*

Well there you go.  The space under the tree is pretty empty, the wheelie bin is full, the fridge is (still) full, the cricket is on, and the Christmas party is officially over for another year.  Around about now everyone’s thoughts turn to reminiscing over the year that was, and thinking up resolutions for the year to come.  Get fit, eat less crap, eat more veggies, keep the house clean, take the dog for walks, do some further study, get a new job etc etc.  But what do you count as success?  For example a new job – is it a payrise, a new title, promotion, move to a new company, or all of the above?  Of course, it’s important to have resolutions and goals, to want more from life and be prepared to go and get it.   But it’s also important to give yourself a chance to succeed.

In kids’ minds, a year is just about inconceivable.  And out of necessity we parents end up thinking in kid-timeframes as well.  In other words, a year is a ridiculous amount of time to think about!  Over 2010, I received two very useful pieces of advice which I would love to share with you.

      1.        Andre Agassi says that the way to achieve is to always try and be a little bit better every day.  You can’t think about winning Wimbledon on your first day of tennis lessons because it’s just too far away and too much of a leap from your current position.  So every day, you just try and hit a little bit harder than yesterday, and over time, you will make great improvements, and sometimes even win a grand slam.

2.       Anne, my Weight Watchers leader, says if you make a mistake, it’s not helpful to beat yourself up over what you did wrong.  It’s what you do now, today that counts.  So if yesterday I ate half a pack of TimTams, and today I beat myself up over it, I’ll probably end up feeling rotten and eating the other half a pack, making today just as bad.  So instead, I can clean the slate, forget about yesterday, be positive, and enable myself to eat healthy instead.

In 2011 I am making 365 daily resolutions instead of a yearly one.  Every day I am going to resolve to be a better mum in some way than the day before.  Every day the resolution might be different – yell a little less, hug a little more, be a bit stricter, be a bit more relaxed, pick the kids up from daycare early and go to the park, stay home all day and play, or make an effort to find something new and exciting for the kids to do.  Every day, a new resolution.  Small, manageable increments.  Easy to forgive and forget if I don’t quite succeed, easy to try again the next day, and easy to measure my achievements.  This time next year, I’ll look back and know that I got a little bit better every day, and 365 little achievements will add up to an awful lot.

http://www.alittlebird.com.au/ wants to thank all guest blogger Miss Cup O' Tea for all her insights....