I’ve failed at the Slice of Life challenge. Life got in the way, and I haven’t written my Slice in a week. I feel like it’s just one of many balls I’ve dropped in the past few weeks. I committed to a daily running challenge and failed at that after the flu got in my way. The stacks of professional books and work to do continues to pile up on my dining room table. I’ve promised to discuss books with people, to complete online courses, and to do a ton of things in my classroom. Not to mention the friends I haven’t seen or talked to in weeks.  I make a list, cross two things off, and add six. Then I lose the list. This pops up in my Timehop from two years ago:

A familiar conversation this time of year, apparently.

But today I’m choosing to reframe my thinking. To climb out of this fixed mindset of being a failure and take the advice I constantly give my kids – “a mistake is a chance to learn something new”.  How can I keep saying that to my kindergarteners if I’m not living it myself?

“There are no failures. Just experiences and your reactions to them.” Tom Krause

So maybe instead of saying I failed, I can learn from this, let it go, stop beating myself up and jump back in. I can change my self-talk. I can be flexible and embrace what I’m feeling right now as an opportunity to learn. I can have more empathy for the young writer who gets frustrated when a plan doesn’t work out, for the reader who struggles to read that new book he wants to read with his friend, for the five year old who wants to go across the monkey bars, for the kiddo who might see himself as failing. And like I tell my kids so often, be persistent, be flexible, give it another try, jump back in. So today, I jump back in.

I’m going to slow down, recommit, prioritize and remember what really matters. Breathe. Pause. Listen. Focus. Stay present. Remember my #olw for 2018 – joy.

Nothing without joy.

Day 7 (for me) Day 14 (of the challenge)