Have you ever fallen behind? You’ve been sick in bed for a week, recovering from surgery, or just gone camping and returned home to mountains of laundry and dirty dishes. Then, you get started on all the damage control, and it hits. Your brain injects self-deprecating thoughts, the feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing. You start kicking yourself when you’re UP.

• You get frustrated at the end of day, no matter how much you accomplished.
• You allow negative thoughts to creep in because your illness left you too tired to finish the dishes.
• You berate yourself because the kids made a mess in the dining room while you were picking up the living room.
• And the list goes on and on and on and on…

Let me tell you an important secret:

You cannot allow negative self-talk when you are succeeding!

Even when things get out of control crazy at home, and you KNOW you’re behind, you should never berate yourself while you are catching up. Negative self talk does nothing for you or the people around you! You already have work ahead of you, and you don’t need to carry that heavy psychological load as well. Women are so bad about this! We admit defeat before we’ve begun, and punish ourselves mentally for not getting a week’s worth of chores done in one day. Now, I know Q from Star Trek could snap his sassy fingers and clean my whole house in five seconds (I’m dating myself), but I don’t possess that kind of insta-magic. I have two hands and two feet, and sometimes a coffee-fueled motivation to work. That will get a few loads of laundry, one or two floors and dishes done, in addition to everyone fed and boo boo’s kissed.

Celebrate all the wins; one dish, one sock, one tangle brushed at a time.

If we celebrate our successes, even the small ones, every day becomes a gold-medalist reward party. We smile at our clean sinks (even if there’s a forgotten dirty dish five feet away). We rave at our laundry folding skills even when the clothes don’t get put away until tomorrow. We feel pride that at least one of the children got a bath today. It feels good to celebrate even the tiniest victory, and we should reward ourselves with these kind feelings CONSTANTLY. There is no second place medal for motherhood. Every day is a gold medal day. I don’t care how far behind you think you are, or how little you think you’ve accomplished, celebrate what you DID do. As soon as you finish – toot your horn! “Yay me!”, “I rock at this mom thing!”, “My family is so lucky to have me!” Keep that self thought positive.

You are capable of much more than your negative self talk gives you credit for.

Kick that negative self talk to the curb! Do this, and the next thing won’t seem so daunting. Mount Washmore might be looming in the distance, but you can tackle it one tiny Hobbit foot at a time if you encourage yourself the whole climb.

Comment below with your most recent mommy win, no matter how small. I want to hear about it, and I’ll celebrate with you!

Mine? I made bread today! I was out of quick lunch food, out of bread, and prepared it an hour late, but everyone ended up with full bellies, and no one died from eating lunch an hour later than usual. Go me!

If you struggle with negative thoughts, and would like to transform your internal dialogue to one more positive, try:

Affiliate link:  The Power of Positive Thinking
Non affiliate link: The Power of Positive Thinking

Janeen