I’m back on the blog with another installment of my Weekly Sip series. How are y’all liking this series? If you have any comments, or topics you’d like me to cover, or questions about anything I’ve written about so far, please leave me a comment! If you’re new to the Weekly Sip, you can catch up on my previous posts here.
So let’s get to it this week…
How often do you take time to step back and look at all you’ve done?
We’ve got a new coffee shop in the Chattanooga coffee scene! The Frothy Monkey opened on the Southside a couple weeks ago, right next to the historic Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel. Frothy Monkey is based in Nashville and has three locations up there; this is its first location outside of the Music City, and I’m so excited they picked Chattanooga.
The weekend before their official grand opening, they had a soft opening for local media and I stopped by after work to check it out. Along with some tasty hors d’oeuvres, the baristas served up some wine and beer–yes, Frothy Monkey serves adult beverages too–and tested some of their coffee and tea drinks.
I went back to Frothy Monkey this week for a pick-me-up before work. Their coffee and tea menu is really extensive and I’m excited to work my way through it the more I go back. This time, I opted for a cup of Moroccan jasmine mint green tea. It was as marvelous as it sounds, and a great way to start the work day.
Last week at work, my boss called an “all hands” meeting, in which everyone gathers to discuss office-wide updates on business, company culture or whatever else happens to be on his mind. He talked for a little bit about how our office fits in with the rest of the company–we are a satellite office of our HQ up in New York, of course–but then went on to something a little more important. “We’ve been so heads down with big projects lately,” he said, “that I think it’s time for us to take a step back and see just how much we’ve done in the last six months. Because it’s a ton of work, and it’s work we should all be very proud of.”
He then went through a presentation that highlighted some of our best work over the last six months. And it was a lot of really really awesome work. Some of it I had even forgotten about, solely because we move so quickly that once one project is done, it’s on to the next one.
He was right. It was definitely time for that reminder.
Life has a tendency to move quickly. We’re almost through March and I feel like 2017 just started a couple weeks ago. At times I feel like I haven’t done all that much, but when I stop and really think about it, I’ve done so much more than I think, at work and outside of work. That’s usually how it goes, and that’s definitely how we felt at work that day.
Sometimes we forget about all the things we’ve done and all of the things we’ve accomplished because we’re forced to move on quickly. But that doesn’t mean you can’t stop, look back and appreciate how far you’ve come. When you get overwhelmed and start to feel like you aren’t going anywhere, that’s the perfect time to take a step back and breathe and reflect. I can guarantee you that you’ve done a lot more than you think you have.
It’s so easy to think about what you haven’t done: gotten engaged, gotten married, found a job you love, traveled extensively, visited an exotic country, bought a house, lost those pesky pounds from college. Focusing too much on your “haven’t dones” holds you back in a negative mindset and prevents you from moving forward. It’s great to have those things as goals, but it’s all in your mindset.
Focus on what you have done and how you made those things happen. That positivity, confidence and determination will propel you toward anything you want to accomplish.
This is all part of the reason I started keeping my “memory jar” on my bookshelf. Each day, I try to write down one positive thing that happened that day on a piece of paper and put it in my jar. At the end of the year, I’ll go back and have all those memories to look back on. Or even before then, if I need to take that time to step back and remind myself of my accomplishments. Plus, it’s a nice way to keep track of all the things that happen throughout the year, so when December comes around, I won’t forget anything that happened in 2017.
Okay, maybe I don’t write something down every day. But at least a few times a week, I scribble down something positive that happened so I can remember it later. It seems small, but it makes a world of difference.
I’m really glad my boss took the time to remind us of all the work we’ve done in the last several months. I don’t think we realized how much we needed to hear and see it. So thanks for that.
When was the last time you took a step back? How did it help you moving forward?
