Drops of Awesome

Bucket of Awesome – Childhood Firsts

October 15, 2016 by Kathryn

What Do You Know About Your Childhood Firsts?

What do you know about your early life? How about your childhood firsts?

What was your first word?

Your first foods?

How old were you when you reached your first major milestones? Were you an early or late walker? Did you talk much as a young child? How old were you when you lost your first tooth?

Today is almost like another list day, but you can add more details to these stories if you like. What other important childhood firsts can you think of?

**We can change our lives by how we tell our stories. Journal along with me as I excavate my past for the joy, the goodness, the Awesome. When we’re done, we’ll have a whole Bucket of Awesome, a story to inspire the people we love, and a brighter perspective of who we really are.**

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. This means, I may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase something from a link I post. Don’t worry, it costs you nothing but it helps keep the Awesome flowing. Thanks!

Bucket of Awesome – Journaling with Lists

October 8, 2016 by Kathryn

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Journaling with Lists

Let’s talk a bit today about the journaling or personal history process. It can be really overwhelming to sit down and just, “Tell Your Story.” Just like with any writing project, it’s easier to start with an outline before hammering out the entire thing.

With journaling, it can be helpful to start by making lists. Instead of writing a detailed description of all the places you ever lived, start by writing a list of places. This will give you something quick and easy to do so you can taste success and progress. It also sort of unlocks your brain and helps you remember things you may not have thought about in years.

Later, you can go back and sketch in details about each of those places or at least the ones that really matter to you.

Today, let’s make a few lists:

List the people who you consider to be true family. They may or may not all be actually related to you.
What towns or cities have you lived in?
Which foods do you love?

See? Easy peasy. You could fill these in later with reasons you love each of those family members, details about the towns and cities, and specific memories about those foods and how you came to love them.

But today, just make lists. And then eat some ice cream. But only if it’s one of the foods you love.

212 The Extra Degree: Extraordinary Results Begin with One Small Change

October 3, 2016 by Kathryn

Today, we start with a science lesson.

Water boils at 212 degrees. So, at 211 it’s just hot water. But at 212 it boils. And boiling water generates steam. Steam can power a locomotive.

That’s a huge difference with just one additional degree.

This is the premise of Sam Parker and Mac Anderson’s motivational book, 212 The Extra Degree: Extraordinary Results Begin with One Small Change. I read an advance copy this summer and it was a great, short read. The whole book is just 88 pages long but it left me feeling inspired and motivated to make a few tiny changes in my life.

Sound at all like Drops of Awesome to you? Me too! I really enjoyed this new analogy, one more way to think about how sometimes it’s just one tiny effort that can make all the difference.

In fact, the book has a similar resonance to 523 Ways to Be Awesome.

“How many opportunities have you missed because you were not aware of the possibilities that would occur if you applied a small amount of effort beyond what you normally do?”

I would add, how many times were you too defeated to apply more effort because you didn’t recognize how well you were already doing? Drops of Awesome.

The book contained short success stories and familiar quotes about courage and perseverance. One of my favorite was the famous quote by Thomas Edison, “Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

This quote resonates with me because I don’t always exhibit great stick-to-it-iveness and I often find myself wondering, what if I REALLY tried? What would happen then?

I comfort myself in my failures by saying, “If I’d REALLY tried, I could have been awesome at hip-hop dance, or filmmaking, or basket weaving. I just didn’t choose to give it my full effort.”

Sometimes committing fully is scary. What if I try my hardest and fail? Then there would be nothing left to give and I would know my best effort is not enough. That’s not something I want to know all the time.

Right now I’m standing on the edge of a situation like this.

I have written professionally for the past 10 years and I always told myself, “If I didn’t have kids at home… if I had more time… I would make writing a full-time career and I would be super successful.”

And now the kids are in school and I can still find all kinds of excuses to not go all-out with writing as a business. What they all boil down to is, I’m scared. I’m scared of spending the next few years working around the clock, only to fall on my face.

But reading this little book helped me crystalize something in my mind. I don’t have to worry about failure. I just need to turn up my effort by one tiny drop at a time, by one degree. And never give up. Or, at least if I give up tomorrow, then I need to un-give up the next day.

What are you afraid to commit to? A better relationship with your spouse? A community service goal? A career? Weight loss?

What could you accomplish if you stopped focusing on what-ifs and fears and started just focusing on increasing your effort? One degree.

Bucket of Awesome – Laughter

October 1, 2016 by Kathryn

Laughter and humor are a huge part of my life. I honestly don’t know who I’d be without them. A sadder person? Probably. A person with fewer wrinkles on my face? Definitely.

How would you describe your laugh?

When was the last time you laughed so hard you couldn’t breathe? Where were you and what set you off?

Who makes you laugh more than anyone else in the world? What is it about him or her that gives you the giggles?

Simply Awesome Fall Décor = Pumpkins

September 28, 2016 by Kathryn

Simply Awesome Fall Décor = Pumpkins

Here’s my problem with home décor. I love pretty things. I pin the heck out of all kinds of craft and decorating ideas on Pinterest.

And then I try to execute my visions and end up with a pinzaster of epic proportions.

Or, worse yet, I don’t do any decorating because when I look at Pinterest and see everyone’s beautiful homes, looking amazing and fancy and creative, I give up. I give up because I don’t have a perfect home, a billion dollars, 20 spare hours, and a design degree.

But you don’t have to have a perfect home, a billion dollars, 20 spare hours, and a design degree to bring a little bit of fall Awesome into your home. You can be festive in five minutes and then live your life.

As part of my Simply Awesome series, I want to talk about fall décor.

The trick is simple. It’s called pumpkins.

The End.

Seriously. I was walking into the grocery store when I saw a gorgeous display of bagged gourdes and I thought, “I’m working on my writing business these days. Too bad I don’t have the time to use some of these cute pumpkins and a bag of fancy things I don’t know the name of from Ben Franklin to decorate my house.”

And then I thought, “The heck?”

Pumpkins.

That is all.

You want to get a little festive for fall? Here’s a plan to follow:

Step 1. Throw some mini pumpkins in your grocery cart.

Step 2. Drive home.

Step 3. Put the pumpkins on shelves around your house.

Step 4. Blog about it.

Step 4 is optional.

Happy fall.

You’re welcome.

A Few Things You Don’t Need

September 26, 2016 by Kathryn

We all need air, water, food, shelter… and possibly cheese. But there are a few things you don’t need in your life.

You don’t need to be perfect to lift someone else.

This blog is sometimes stressful for me. I started out telling stories about my kids. I know my kids. I know how to tell stories. It worked. But the kids are getting older and their stories are their own. There are fewer and fewer family stories we are all comfortable with me telling on the internet.

If I was going to keep writing, I needed a new direction. And I love writing. I love connecting with other women online. And that one guy who reads my site. I like connecting with him too. His name is Dan. And he lives in my house. Re: eternal matrimony.

The most shared post I’ve ever written is Drops of Awesome. So I decided to change domains and build a site based on the stories and ideas I shared in that post. I wanted a site that would tell people that they are enough, that all their small acts of good are overwhelmingly important, and that they can change who they are for the better with one tiny choice.

In theory, this sounds like a great idea for a website and I am completely passionate about this topic. However, I’m frequently intimidated by the prospect of sharing advice or ideas with women who I know could teach me so much.

I have to constantly remind myself that I don’t have to be perfect to lift someone else. If I didn’t struggle with feelings of inadequacy or discouragement, I probably couldn’t write so passionately about this topic.

None of us are perfect. And we all need each other. So I keep writing.

What are you passionate about? You can start now to share that passion with others, to teach them what you know.

Don’t wait until you’re perfect to reach out and lift someone else. We need your light and influence in the world.

You don’t need to know everything to do something.

I procrastinate. A lot. And although sometimes this is due to laziness, it’s more often due to perfectionism. I don’t want to start a project until I have all the materials, know everything about how to do it perfectly, and feel confident I will not fail.

I almost never meet all of those conditions.

And so the crap I bought to put in my 72-hour kits sits in a box in the garage until the diapers and pull-ups hardly even fit my 13-year-old anymore.

Well, last week I decided to believe my mantra – You don’t need to know everything to do something. I put away all the lists and plans and books about making 72-hour kits. I stopped by the grocery store for some food items and then just got out everything I had and threw it in backpacks.

It took two hours.

To complete a project I’d been procrastinating for 10 years.

Is it perfect? Nope. But it’s a lot better than what I’ve had for the past decade. Is there something you’ve been dying to do but you’re waiting to know everything and be perfect? Stuff that thinking in a dark hole somewhere and just get her done.

You don’t need a huge amount of time to make a difference.

I feel better when I serve someone, when I make a difference in someone’s life. But I don’t have time to start a charitable foundation today or even hand out food to the homeless.

Sometimes I need to remember that although I may not have time or capacity to make a difference with a thousand strangers, I can always make a difference to an individual.

Have you ever smiled at a child you don’t know in the elementary school office and seen her face light up? How about letting someone ahead of you in traffic? That might not save a life but it might restore the other driver’s faith in human kindness just a bit.

If you don’t have time to make a quilt for your niece’s birthday, send her a card. If you don’t have time to address and mail a card, text her or call her while you’re grocery shopping.

We are all busy. But some of the things that have made the biggest difference to me took almost no time at all. A text message telling me my friend was thinking about me all the way in Portland. An encouraging smile and nod from a neighbor who sat on the front row of my book talk and signing last weekend. Office staff who greet me warmly whenever I stop by the elementary school.

We can all do more of this junk. And it will feel amazing.

Bucket of Awesome – First Home

September 24, 2016 by Kathryn

Write about the first home you ever remember living in. Where was it located? Who lived there? What color were the walls? How did it feel? What did you love about your first home?

The first home I remember was located in a semi-sketchy part of town. We lived in government-assisted housing while my dad finished grad school. However, I was oblivious to any problems with our living arrangements. I loved that apartment and my mind floods with happy memories when I picture those green and white checkered curtains and the grassy area in the middle where we would play.

Your first home might not have been ideal, but focus on what was good about it. A favorite room? A favorite person you lived with?

Where did your Awesome journey begin?

Do Something Good

September 19, 2016 by Kathryn

On days when I exercise, I’m much less likely to snarf a huge bowl of Mac and Cheese for lunch. On those big workout days, I tend to eat more veggies, lean meats and whole grains.

It’s not because I think, If got up at Stupid o’clock in the morning to burn 800 calories on a spin bike, I’m not going to eat back that entire amount in cheesy carbs!

It’s generally because I feel awesome about working out and I want to keep that high going. It’s about momentum and it’s about tasting victory.

One good choice in my life almost always leads to another good choice because doing good feels… what’s a good word to use here? AWESOME!

If I wake up and train like an athlete, then I feel all athlety and fierce and it’s only natural that I’ll want to fuel my athletic body with the right kind of fuel.

Choosing to be athletic makes me feel like an athlete. And when I feel like an athlete, I act like an athlete.

The same goes for my parenting. If I make a conscious effort to reach out to one of my kids and ask about his day, then I’m a nicer mom in our next interaction. I feel closer to him. We understand each other better.

Choosing to be nice makes me feel like a nice mom. And when I feel like a nice mom, I act like a nice mom.

So what do you want to be like today? Do one thing that a person like that would do. Savor how it feels and let that momentum carry you away on a pillowy cloud of Awesome.

Take one step forward. Do something good today.

Bucket of Awesome – First Love

September 17, 2016 by Kathryn

Who were the first people that loved you? Maybe you knew someone loved you right at birth and maybe not until years later. It’s okay. This is your story, not anyone else’s.

When was the first time you knew you were loved? That’s a kind of birth in itself, right? How did you know you were loved? If this love happened at an age earlier than your brain can reliably remember, have you heard stories about things others did for you to show love?

Bucket of Awesome: Your Life’s More Amazing Than You Realize

September 12, 2016 by Kathryn

We are all storytellers.

Every day in little ways we each tell the stories of our lives. We tell them to others. Sometimes we write them down. Mostly, we repeatedly tell them to ourselves.

And how we tell them makes a HUGE difference in how we see ourselves.

We decide which stories get told over and over again. The more we tell them, the more important they become in the canon of who we are.

We decide how we tell them. The tone of our stories becomes the tone and direction of our lives.

Which stories will you choose to tell?

So many amazing things have happened in my life. There have been incredibly hard things too. Which stories do I focus on? Which stories receive my time and attention?

Do you know one of those people who is always ready with a tale of disaster and heartache?

“How was your day?” you ask.

She rolls her eyes and settles into a long and tragic story about how it’s been the worst day of her life and everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. She does this every time you speak to her.

I know other people who always seem in a great mood. When I ask them what they’ve been up to, they usually tell me about some success or joyful experience. They are genuinely happy and, in contrast to the first type of person, it seems that their lives are overflowing with Awesome.

Is the second friend just luckier than the first friend? Does she just live a charmed life? I don’t think so. I know we all have a broad range of experiences and some weeks are harder than others. Some lives are harder than others. But in many cases, our lives are as happy as we decide they will be.

When we choose to spend the majority of our time telling uplifting stories or simply finding the uplift in our difficult stories, we and everyone around us will be inspired.

How will you tell your story?

When I look back at my experiences with postpartum anxiety and depression, I can see myself as a victim, or a loser, or a hero who overcame something awful and used the experience to make positive changes in my life.

My view of this has changed over the years. Today I choose to think of myself as going through something earth-shattering and then being miraculously preserved so I could emerge stronger and kinder than I was before.

If that’s my story, then it informs everything I do. I’m on a hero’s journey. If I see myself as a victim, that will inform everything I do as well.

I internalize that story. I tell it. I refine it. I become it.

If your life is a Bucket, you decide what you will fill it with. I’m aiming to have a Bucket of Awesome.

How can I fill my Bucket of Awesome?

Over the coming weeks and months, I want us to do an experiment together. On Saturdays I will post a journal prompt. As we work through these prompts, we will choose what stories to tell and how to tell them.

We can change our lives by how we tell our stories. Journal along with me as I excavate my past for the joy, the goodness, the Awesome. When we’re done, we’ll have a whole Bucket of Awesome, a story to inspire the people we love, and a brighter perspective of who we really are.

Will you fill your Bucket of Awesome with me?

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