Small Success: Mental Flex

Today my son turned nineteen and started driving lessons. Today it rained for the third day in a row, making exercise a non-starter. Today I took my kiddos shopping and we made cookies. A whole lot of ordinary took place, but it’s in the ordinary that our lives reveal what we value, and what we’ve decided not to value.

I’d thought, “Maybe it’s time to stop SST. I’ve done this thing for well over nine years.”

My seven-year-old came to sit on my lap while I worked on the computer. “Why do I have to do IXL?” she whined.

There were several reasons. It’s been assigned. It’s summer. It’s not hard, it’s just drill. But I told her, “Practice for your brain.”

“I don’t want to practice.”

“It helps you to struggle less with math.”

“I’d rather play.”

I helped her get through the exercise. She promptly boasted about the house about her score, and about finishing before her sisters did their summer work. It was the mental equivalent of flexing. Her sisters raced over to prove their mental bonafides on the computer and Kindle. “And that’s why you do it,” I heard in my head.

Practice. Small Success Thursday is a practice anyone can do, just look back over the past week, and find those moments you want to hold onto, which reveal attempts to follow God’s will, to improve your life and the lives of those around you, or where you did something you didn’t think you could, which is a step toward a bigger goal of a more joy filled life. This week I:

1) Continued however fitfully, my exercise regimen. I did miss out on two days due to rain.

2) Discovered a new podcast I’m enjoying listening to while I walk. (Keeping the brain jogging around the park).

3) Worked on a writing project (at 18K).

4) Made it to Adoration.

Here’s your opportunity to mentally flex for the rest of us. Hope your week was full of great Small Successes. See you next week!

What small successes are you celebrating this week?