I haven’t blogged in over a year and now twice in one
month?!? Well, really it’s because the baby woke up in the middle of the night
and now I can’t turn off the hamster wheel in my brain. I “could” work. Lord
knows my work schedule makes me want to barf when I look at it each morning…
but what fun would that be?
I think I’ll use this time to talk about positivity. Hence
the “be a plus sign” title. We recently had a staff development day in which I
was told I had to go to a training with central office. I tried everything to
get out of this… remember, the schedule and work load that makes me want to
barf, but was denied. I am SOOOO glad I went though. It was ultimately about
customer service, but really, in the bigger picture, it was about being nice.
We watched a video of this successful restaurant owner somewhere up north. His shtick
was “give ‘em the pickle.” Long story short, a customer was very upset when
denied a fee pickle and his point was GIVE EM THE PICKLE! It’s such a small
thing to do to be able to keep the customer happy. Translated into my job…. Even
when I’m stressed to the max, I need to paint on a happy face and find some positivity.
And I’m really trying to do this more. It’s so easy to get caught up in the
things that are difficult or not going my way… even when there are many more
things going right. In working with kids with problem behaviors I preach about
the “4:1 ratio” which is 4 praises for each correction. Maybe I should be doing
that with positive thoughts… 4 positive for each negative. I mean, it’s not
like it could hurt anything.
A couple years ago, when we were going to Max Lucado’s
church, he did a series called “100 Happy People.” If you follow my blog maybe
you’ll remember that I wrote about my journey through this. It was very
enlightening! Showing kindness to 100 people…. What a revolutionary idea! I’ve decided
to use this for my “Lent” this year. I’ve given up soda, fried food, and
chocolate before (not all at the same time, I’m not crazy), and while any
sacrifice for the Lord is awesome, I think me giving up french fries benefits
my waistline more than his kingdom. I really like this movement of DOING
something rather than giving something up (this is not a criticism to those who
give things up, I think making a Lenten sacrifice, no matter what it is, is
great). And let me back up a little…. I don’t even consider myself Catholic
anymore, but this is one of those Catholic things I like to maintain. That and
St. Nick ;) I digress, point being, I realize I’m a little late in getting
started, but I’m going to try and post a positive thought to facebook each day throughout
lent. This is number 1.
My last thought on positivity is Facebook related. I allow
myself to get way too wrapped up in how people speak to each other. It’s not even
about what they are saying, I’m cool with different opinions, but it’s the
manner in which it is said. And, for the most part, it’s not my immediate “friends”
but when I read an article or look at a controversial post, I feel compelled to
read the comments. It is unreal to me how people think they can talk to each other
in such unkind and degrading ways. We are preaching that to our toddler who is
very verbal and in the “terrible two” stage. It’s okay to be upset, but you
need to speak to us (and everyone else) with kindness. She’s a work in
progress. And it just occurred to me how to end this work vomit of a post. With
a Tay story. I picked her up from school and the teachers told me she had given
them attitude and not been nice at times that day. So instead of my normal “we
need to use kind words” spiel, I changed it up a little bit….
Mommy- “Was Jesus mean to his friends or was he kind?”
Tay- “He was kind”
Mommy- “Does God want us to be kind to people or to use mean
words?”
Tay- blows big ‘ol raspberry and says “mommy I elephant!”
I just looked up at the sky, shrugged, and said “Welp, I’m
trying.”
Be a plus sign folks. Or at least start trying. #smileyface
