I want to share a realization I recently had that may be relatable for some people. It is about giving yourself credit and celebrating your victories. This may not be for everyone, as there are people who have no problem giving themselves credit (sometimes even a little too much!), but it might resonate with those who tend to be hard on themselves, those with the never ending to-do lists, and those who could benefit from seeing the awesomeness in themselves more.
I often procrastinate on my personal to-do tasks. I should take care of something, it is in my head, it often creates anxiety, and sometimes it even wakes me up at night, yet I do not do it and let it linger and torture me. I am generally on top of my things, but I take longer with some tasks and create unnecessary worries and clog my headspace thinking about these tasks. What I realized was that once I take care of that given task, instead of being happy that I finally did it and giving myself some credit for getting that dreaded task done, I immediately begin to think about the next thing on my list that I have not done yet and create a new set of negative thoughts.
Why don’t I give myself more credit? Why don’t I celebrate more when I get these things done? Yes, I do feel better when they are done, but I immediately move to the next thing, which leads to a never ending negative cycle in my head about my to-do list because as we all know, there is always going to be some other task to be done.
I have resolved to change this. My goal is two-fold – to give myself more credit for work done and to not let the thinking about these tasks fill up as much space in my head. First, I plan to give myself a little ‘pat on the back’ and take a moment to recognize when I accomplish something that I needed to get done, however big or small it may be. I am not sure exactly how I am going to do that, but I have started with things such as saying out loud to myself ‘good job’ or ‘yay, you did it’ or writing down what I did to appreciate how much I have accomplished. Somehow saying things loud or seeing them written enables me to appreciate my efforts more. I am also thinking about rewarding myself with a little break from other to-do tasks after I complete one of my bigger tasks.
Secondly, and this will be harder, I would like to make sure that these tasks do not take as much space in my head. I often think about them for weeks and create stress. My plan is to do the big tasks quickly to get them done and simply not give them the chance to fill up my headspace. Also, I want to be more relaxed about the smaller ones, because ultimately I know I will get them done, so why let them occupy so much space in my head?
I would love to hear if you have any tips on how to tackle this. It is a work in progress for me and I am sure others who have faced similar challenge may have some useful hacks. Let me know! I would love to hear from you.
