relationships

With a new baby to care for, at the end of the day I often find myself glancing around the chaos in my home, running through the never-ending mental ‘to-do’ list, and lamenting that ‘I got nothing done today’.

It’s so easy to get pulled into the trap of believing we need to do more in order to have more and to be more. My perceptions of success and self-worth are tied to my productivity. But what if I asked questions to determine the value of my day that were better than ‘what did I get done?’? Questions that were more aligned with my values and what really matters to me right now.

How deeply did I love and allow myself to be loved today?

Did I express love and appreciation for people I care about?

Who did I connect with? Did I form new connections or strengthen old ones?

What opportunities will I have to do this better tomorrow?

I read heaps of blog posts, management articles and listen to a lot of podcasts. And for the most part I find them very inspiring and thought-provoking…. in the moment. I might mull over them for a few minutes, tweet a link to it and bookmark it on Pinboard. But more often than not that’s where my (at least conscious) engagement ends. However, I do have a collection of probably 15 or fewer pieces/talks that I recall often and talk about with other people and that really inform or affect what I do and how I do it. This is my measure of what makes a ‘good’ article/talk/post.

Sean Johnson wrote a post about his ‘eight life hacks’ on his blog over 5 years ago. I don’t know how I found it, but according to Pinboard I bookmarked it in December 2010. And it’s one of those ones that’s stuck with me. Or more specifically, one line from the post has stuck with me….

Whenever you think something great about someone, always say it.

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The measure of a day

Whenever you think something great about someone else, always say it