Description: There's just something so awesome about having something we get to look forward to, to build the enthusiastic anticipation for. Something we know will make us feel happy and content. Let's explore that a bit more this week with Dr. Boogren.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Self-Care for Educators. I'm your host, Tina Boogren. This is episode 17 of our third season, and it is the middle of January . I think the middle of January is a really, really hard time of the year. We're over the holidays. It's, for most of us, it is dark, and it's cold, and it's just typically maybe not for everyone. But, for me it's just, it's kind of, it's a hard month, and so the invitation this week is to put something on your calendar that you can look forward to soon . It's one thing to start thinking about summer plans or spring break vacations, or if you've got a long weekend coming up. Yes, yes, yes. Do all of those things. But, I'm talking about something you can look forward to like this week. Maybe coming up this weekend, get something in your calendar or within the next couple of weeks. It doesn't have to be a huge thing, just something that you can look forward to to kind of get you through the January Blues.
Ideally, I'd love you to get something on your calendar for this month before the end of January. The sooner the better, maybe more than one thing. Maybe it's making that invitation to a friend to meet up for coffee or for dinner. Maybe it's purposely getting outside over the weekend. Maybe you're gonna sled or walk or hike or whatever, wherever your, whatever your thing is and whatever your geography allows you to do. Maybe it's going to see a movie. One of my favorite things in the world is to go see a movie totally by myself. Yes, I love going to movies with my husband, but I really love going to movies by myself. That could be because I really, really love popcorn, and I don't like to share it. Or, it could just be, I don't know ... It's an activity that just is in no way uncomfortable to do on your own. I get to choose my own movie. I get to choose my own seat. So, maybe you take yourself to a ... maybe take yourself to a movie by yourself.
Maybe you go to my other happy place and just wander the aisles of Target , and that's just something that you can look forward to. Whatever it is, I just want you to have something to look forward to. I don't know. For me, that's just a little thing when I, when I'm stuck in like the blues of these hard, hard winter months, and I just feel like, ugh. Our spring trip feels so far away when I'm looking at my calendar, and so what are those small moments of joy that we can pull in? Again, it doesn't have to be anything big, just something small. Just put it on the calendar, whether it's something that you're looking forward to with your family. Maybe it's just something for yourself. Taking yourself on your own own little date, if you will. Whatever it is, put it on your calendar so that you don't just ... Really think through, maybe you do a little bit of brainstorming and you write down like, what's a whole slew of things that I can put on my calendar to look forward to?
Again, like maybe it's a list of movies that you wanna go to, or restaurants you wanna try, or recipes you wanna try, books you wanna read, and then go into your calendar and really plan out when are you going to do the things. When are you actually gonna go to the movie? It's one thing to say, I want to see this movie. It's a whole other thing to say, Saturday at two o'clock I am going to this movie. Or, saying, Oh, this is a recipe that I'd love to try. How about you say, You know what? On Sunday, I'm gonna cook this. On Saturday, I'm gonna go to the grocery store, get all the goodies that I need for it, all the ingredients, and I'm gonna actually cook it on Sunday. Like make a plan for it. Again, different strategies work for different people, but this tends to be a strategy that works for most. Especially, I know a whole bunch of us really rely on having kind of those outer expectations as Gretchen Rubin would say. So, if we put it on the calendar, that might be enough to feel like an expectation like it's on the calendar, so I have to do it.
If we don't write it down or don't get purposeful about when it's gonna happen, oftentimes we don't do it. You know, something that can be done anytime often is never done. 'Cause it's like whenever it's not, it's not anything too pressing that can happen whenever. And so, let's take it and instead of saying, that could happen at any time, it's something I'd just love to do and let's get really intentional. In-able ... I made up a new word, in-able. How about intentional about when that's going to happen, can you tell that I commit to just doing these podcasts in one take? This is me. As real as it gets. So intentional. There we go. I actually kinda like that. Okay. Anyway, back to business. So that's your invitation.
This ... I want you to get something in writing that you are looking forward to. And in fact, of course, I would love if you would hop on over into the Facebook group and share with us what, what it is you're gonna do, because that might inspire other listeners to find some new things that they might try as well. So, as we move through, January, which can be for some of us, maybe not for everyone, but for some of us, a hard month for a number of reasons. Let's purposely invite Joy in and let's do that by scheduling something on our calendar that we can look forward to, and this will help us feel ... Think back to the last week's episode. Feel excited that we have that to look forward to, and it just might put a little bounce in our step.
As always, a huge, huge thank you to Brooke. Thank you for all you do to make this happen. Thank you to Solution Tree and Marzano Resources for this job I get to do, and as always, thank you to you. My very, very bad-ass Self-Care Squad. Here's to creating joy by deciding this is going to. I look forward to it, and I'm committing to doing it. You're awesome. Have an incredible week. I love you guys.