A Passing Grade

Every once in a while I get a new wave of motivation to take better care of myself. It looks different each time. Sometimes it's as simple as trying to take the kids for a walk every day and sometimes it is more complex, like making a list of things to do every day. But one thing is for sure, the attempts generally don't last long. Let's be honest - life is busy! And taking care of yourself takes time and effort, scarce resources when you're faced with the endless demands of the day. And when you do have a few minutes to yourself it's just so much easier to scroll Facebook or watch a movie, so that's often what happens.

But when I don't take care of myself, it starts to take it's toll. I can tell when I haven't had enough sleep or been outside for a while or connected with friends lately because I'm grumpier, I complain more, I feel tired and lonely. Eventually those negative effects build up to a point where I am once again spurred into action.

My latest attempt at taking better care of myself takes the form of a weekly chart that I can use a dry erase marker on to keep track of how well I'm doing. I have seven different daily tasks, including eating three healthy meals, getting outside, and doing stretches. The chart goes from Monday to Saturday, since I figured that Sundays can be my day off. I also included a few weekly items that I would like to try to do at least once in each week. If you add everything up, that totals 50 potential check marks.

I made my chart that way on purpose, because if each check mark counts as two points, it becomes very easy to give myself a grade for each week.

In college I was the kind of student who had to do well. If I ever got a mark that was lower than an A it really bothered me (much to the frustration of certain people in my life). As much as I am proud of my grades, I'm not necessarily proud of my "need" to get good grades. However, I am going to see if I can harness that drive to help in the task of taking better care of myself.

I've included a picture of my first week's chart. I got a total of 28%. Ouch. That's not even a passing grade! If anything can motivate me, that should be able to.

Unlike my college grades, I'm not setting my sights on a perfect GPA. I think my kids would have to be saints for me to have the time and energy to manage that. But I am aiming for a passing grade. We will see how it goes!