Celebrate the win - Ta Da Lists
Exhaustion and busyness often seem like medals people wear to show that they have purpose and value. But what we’ve learned as we’ve explored mental health in a digital and connected age is that actually rest, headspace, and looking after ourselves are necessary for productivity and thriving.
We write to do lists and we move through them marking things off, but we often end up with lists that continue to grow as we add more and more. BUT what if we took time to recognise the things we have achieved?
To do lists are great -
I love a to do list, and one of my favourite things is to add things I’ve done to the to do list so that I can tick them off! To do lists get things out of our heads and onto paper. That’s really positive for your mental health because no one wants to be carrying everything around in their heads. They keep you on track and mean that things don’t get missed.
Do to do lists let us down? -
Because our to do lists are, more often than not, never ending they can sometimes mean that we never get a chance to see what we have achieved. Check off 3 things but add 3, 4, or 5 more onto the list, and maybe you never get a chance to see what you achieved? To see that you made progress?
Celebrating your wins -
As a self employed person, you often get stuck in a void of you and your thoughts. In a position of employee, a good manager will be given positive feedback for the work that you do in the form of 1-1s and manager reviews. If you’re good at gathering reviews from customers or clients, you may get the occasional external feedback, but other than that, it is down to you to recognise your wins. A to do list might allow you to do that, but only if you are deliberately looking for it.
Recognising progress -
So how do we find the progress? With deliberate actions, we can spot the completed items on a to do list and celebrate, but because we are always adding to the to do list, it can be hard to see what we’ve achieved. That’s why I created the Ta Da list back in 2020 when I was running my own card and stationery business.
What’s a ta da list? -
A Ta Da list is a place for you to deliberately write a list of things you are proud of achieving. A list of things to reflect on progress and to build up. To look at when you’re being overly critical of yourself and to remind yourself that you’ve achieved things.
While I’m talking about to do lists, I’d also love to share a top tip someone shared with me recently. Where you can instead of just adding an item to a to list add it to a calendar on a day you think you’ll be able to complete it. It means that instead of writing a list, you’re writing a plan as you!
I love to encourage people and build them up. It’s one of the reasons I love being a Virtual Assistant. I get to encourage small business owners and build them up. Remind them of what they’ve achieved and how good they are at things.
My hope is that you will use the Ta Da list to remind yourself of your successes, your achievements, and your progress.
Sign up for my newsletter, confirm your email address, and you will be able to download the Ta Da list for you to use time and time again to build up your business.
