On the last day of school my girl came home with a beach bucket complete with bubbles, a sand toy, and a “Summer Bucket List” attached. I’ve seen friends posting on social media about their “Bucket List”, (Season is irrelevant).
As we have started to check off a few things I started thinking maybe we need to rethink how we approach these things. What if we took more of a reflective approach instead of a “check off”?
This first week out of school my girl and I took a trip to Florida to see my mother in law. I didn’t make any big plans, I figured the pool and beach with Grandma were exciting enough! However, we brought the ” Summer Bucket List” with us. At the end of each day I asked E these questions:
What did we get to do today?
Is it on that list? If not, let’s write it on the back. (Gator in Grandma’s backyard wasn’t on the list!)
What was your favorite part of today?
What are you grateful for today?
I’m not the first parent to do this, in fact I’m grateful for those with experience before me who have shared. I just know that we tend to get overwhelmed when we see this long list of things we feel we need to check off. As a recovering perfectionist, the more reflective approach creates more gratitude and less overwhelm.
While I do create a short list of things to accomplish each day, in the bigger picture, I like to use this perspective of “What did I get to do today?”
Remember, perspective is everything!
Diary of a Recovering Perfectionist 