In a few past posts, I shared that I won the Outstanding Staff Green Award at work. It is awarded to one staff member who has been with the institution for less than five years. The other award is the Outstanding Staff Gold Award, and that one is awarded to one staff member who has been with the institution for over five years. Both are amazing accomplishments.
Aside from a traveling trophy, I believe that you receive a plaque or certificate, along with a stipend of $250 to use for professional development.
Choosing how to spend my stipend came with great challenges because I had recently completed my CEMP certification and have two upcoming conferences, and therefore had no interest in using the fund for a conference or training program.
From there I thought about equipment, but there’s really no equipment that I need or have an interest in right now. So, I was still lost as to how I would use the money. After about a week of thinking it over, I decided to use the stipend for all the books that I had saved on my Pinterest board.
From the board, I was able to order 17 of the books to create a Personal and Professional Development Office Library.
In a future post, I will share the list of books, but until then, we will focus on the book, I’m currently reading, 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest.
101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think
When I first unwrapped the plastic and flipped through the pages, it was not what I was expecting. I was expecting pages of long-length essays, not mini-essays and lists (which I love and appreciate).
As I began reading, the first chapter or two had me questioning if I was really going to enjoy the book and get something out of it. And, then, I came across chapter nine, 20 Signs You’re Doing Better Than You Think You Are – and, I was hooked.
In this chapter, there is no essay. Instead, there is a list of 20 ways you are doing better than others along with an explanation for each item in which I have listed below.
20 Signs You’re Doing Better Than You Think You Are (Brianna Wiest)
1. You paid the bills this month, and maybe even had extra to spend on non-necessities. It doesn’t matter how much you belabored the checks as they went out, the point is that they did, and you figured it out regardless.
2. You question yourself. You doubt your life. You feel miserable some days. This means you’re still open to growth. This means you can be objective and self-aware. The best people go home at the end of the day and think: “or… maybe there’s another way.”
3. You have a job. For however many hours, at whatever rate, you are earning money that helps you eat something, sleep on something, wear something every day. It’s not failure if it doesn’t look the way you thought it would – you’re valuing your independence and taking responsibility for yourself.
4. You have time to do something you enjoy. Even if “what you enjoy” is sitting on the couch and ordering dinner and watching Netflix.
5. You are not worried about where your next meal is coming from. There’s food in the fridge or pantry, and you have enough to actually pick and choose what you want to eat.
6. You can eat because you enjoy it. It’s not a matter of sheer survival.
7. You have one or two truly close friends. People worry about the quantity but eventually tend to realize the number of people you can claim to be in your tribe has no bearing on how much you feel intimacy, acceptance, community, or joy. At the end of the day, all we really want are a few close people who know us (and love us) no matter what.
8. You could afford a subway ride, cup of coffee, or the gas in your car this morning. The smallest conveniences (and oftentimes, necessities) are not variables for you.
Enjoying the Content?
9. You’re not the same person you were a year ago. You’re learning, and evolving, and can identify the ways in which you’ve changed for better and worse.
10. You have the time and means to do things beyond the bare minimum. You’ve maybe been to a concert in the last few years, you buy books for yourself, you could take a day trip to a neighboring city if you wanted – you don’t have to work all hours of the day to survive.
11. You have a selection of clothing at your disposal. You aren’t worried about having a hat or gloves in a blizzard, you have cool clothes for the summer and something to wear to a wedding. You not only can shield and decorate your body, but can do so appropriately for a variety of circumstances.
12. You can sense what isn’t right in your life. The first and most crucial step is simply being aware. Being able to communicate to yourself: “something is not right, even though I am not yet sure what would feel better.”
13. If you could talk to your younger self, you would be able so say: “We did it, we made it out, we survived that terrible thing.” So often people carry their past traumas into their present lives, and if you want any proof that we carry who we were in who we are, all you need to do is see how you respond to your inner child hearing, you’re going to be okay, from the person they became.
14. You have a space of your own. It doesn’t even have to be a home or apartment (but that’s great if it is). All you need is a room, a corner, a desk, where you can create or rest at your discretion; where you govern who gets to be part of your weird little world, and to what capacity. It’s one of the few controls we can actually exert.
15. You’ve lost relationships. More important than the fact that you’ve simply had them in the first place is that you or your former partner chose not to settle. You opened yourself to the possibility of something else being out there.
16. You’re interested in something. Whether it’s now how to live a happier life, maintain better relationships, reading or movies or sex or society or the axis on which the world spins, something intrigues you to explore it.
17. You know how to take care of yourself. You know how many hours of sleep you need to feel okay the next day, who to turn to when you’re heartbroken, what you have fun doing, what to do when you don’t feel well, etc.
18. You’re working toward a goal. Even if you’re exhausted and it feels miles away, you have a dream for yourself, however vague and malleable.
19. But you’re not uncompromisingly set on anything for your future. Some of the happiest and best-adjusted people are the ones who can make any situation an ideal, who are too immersed in the moment to intricately plan and decidedly commit to any one specific outcome.
20. You’ve been through some crap. You can look at challenges you currently face and compare them to ones you thought you’d never get over. You can reassure yourself through your own experience. Life did not get easier, you got smarter.
Again, these signs are from the book, 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Briana Wiest.
After Reading the List & Final Thoughts
After reading through each of the 20 signs, I was able to check off every single one. Me saying this is not to boast or brag, but to tell you what I did following. After reading the list, I immediately took out my notebook and began to journal a gratitude list for the next 7-10 minutes.
Although I speak and write gratitude daily, this was a little different because I felt a new slew of things that I was grateful for. The list was definitely different from other gratitude lists in the past.
What are your thoughts after reading through the list yourself?
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