After my caregiving experience ended, I wondered if my body aches and pains would ever go away.
My caregiving stress created tight, tense muscles which hurt. With more time and less stress after my parents died, I committed to stretching and strengthening my muscles. My constant pain transitioned to once-in-awhile pain. I love to mark this progress by appreciating my body’s ability to heal.
This experience convinces me that we need to spend more time honoring our progress in whatever amount we achieve. I think we wait until we believe we’ve crossed a finish line of our own making to give ourselves kudos. Sometimes, it takes time to reach the finish line. Our dedication to improvement moves us closer to that line. That’s important to acknowledge.
When we celebrate our progress, we receive motivation to continue. If we overlook our progress, we may find it easier to simply give up. It’s most important we keep going. Celebrating progress helps us continue.
For instance, perhaps you set a new boundary in a relationship. Because the new boundary requires you to be a different person in the relationship, you sometimes struggle to stick with the boundary. Setting the boundary is progress as is every time you give yourself another chance to stick to it. You decided to do something difficult; acknowledging your progress means you give yourself both grace and time to successfully integrate this change.
We can remind ourselves that progress needs kudos by asking ourselves this question to start our day: “How will I honor today’s progress?”
How will you honor your progress?
(Image by Stefan Schweihofer from Pixabay)
Resources
- The Sunday Question, Volume Two, is out on Kindle and paperback. The journal helps you track which questions work best for you. Add our A Good Morning for You journal to give yourself good starts.
- Enjoy the podcast, below.
