Rough day...I'm sitting here, finally not listening to a screaming baby after trying to get him to nap for the past hour or 2. I've lost count. After I crammed in a trip to the grocery store, the impossible destination, fed him twice, nursed him twice, rocked him twice, remade the changing table twice, and reminded him for the 4th time that it is indeed nap time...well, I'm just not feeling successful today. I did get to put in 5 minutes toward instrument repair. Woot.
This has been the story of my life for...um I can't remember. Minus the tricky naps, he's usually better. However leaving the house to do anything is becoming an activity of the past. He's hungry about every 1/2 hour, or cranky, or deciding to take a nap about when I thought we were going out the door. Between naps and feeding, I'm losing my mind. Perhaps I'll find it on Spring Cleaning weekend (gonna be a fun time out here in T-town for the next couple of days, folks!). Or maybe the general contractor I've been trying to call for the past two weeks knows where my mind has gone!
So at the end of the day, when all is said and done, how do I measure success? It used to be in work accomplished, students taught, new things learned. I suppose it's much the same, but work isn't instruments repaired or lessons taught. Though I learn daily, it isn't going to earn me any new degree. My measurement success has transformed. It's loads of laundry and dishes done, groceries bought, and meals made. It is in how easily the baby ate food (ie I didn't have to prepare 8 lunches before I found something he'd actually eat more than a a taste of), took a nap, or played/cooperated while I tried to accomplish something else. Some days it is in what Stefan learned to do or how many hugs I received through the day. I hope soon it will be in hours I could practice, time spent reading, and projects around the house accomplished.
So how do you measure success? Dollars earned/saved? Time with loved ones? Tasks accomplished? Amount of education you received? The car you drive or phone you own? Lives you've touched? Something completely different?
I used to measure success in dollars earned and the height of my heels... for my non=paying job, I measure it in the number of baby smiles and hugs I get, the little milestones she hits, and in every extra second of sleep I get.
ReplyDeleteIn my paying job, i measure it in all the notes i get about the great work i do :) (and in the dolla billz. def. still measuring it that way!!)
My knees and feet are starting to rebel for 8 years of measuring success by the heigh of my heels! WAHHH