Mindful Monday Word-Progress
The word progress doesn’t have to suggest great strides, huge leaps and bounds. Nope, and as a matter of fact, it means small steps towards your goal does add up to both of those! You just have to move forward. As Dori would say: “Keep swimming” for when you focus and put your goals in front of you, you’ll notice that each step you take gets you closer and closer!
Progress as an adult isn’t much different than progress as a child. Meaning, when you move forward you’re making progress. Not necessarily moving with your feet ahead, but on the task you’re working on or the goal you’re trying to achieve. Progress is progress. As long as you’re aware of this and you can focus on the outcome, you’ll move ahead. You know what needs to be done to move ahead. It might be studying extra hard, it might be researching additional information, it may be networking, it may be stepping out of your comfort zone, it may be a lot of different things. Still, progress is progress.
When your child makes progress you continue to encourage them to keep going, to never give up, to get to where you’re going. The same is true for an adult, cut yourself some slack if you’re not progressing as far as you’d hoped for. I have struggled with this for some time, until a mentor of mine said, “Joni, instead of focusing on the struggles or the time it’s taken you to achieve your goal, remind yourself of all your accomplishments” and once I reminded myself of what I’ve overcome and the accomplishments I’ve made in order to achieve my goal, it put me in a much better frame of mind.
I believe this to be true when we’re teaching our children to never give up at something they are doing or learning. As with most children the easy thing to do would be to quit. Don’t you let them!
Encourge them to continue
Praise them for their accomplishments thus far
Be a role model for them
Find the things that they will succeed at so they feel the joy in completing their task
Introduce them to new teachings and remind them that the other task was a bit hard but you did it
Focus on the progress
Print this out as a visual reminder to encourage PROGRESS!
Do’er Duck is one of the nine Characters of Character and helps you to teach and reinforce perseverance. For when we persevere we are making progress! Resource Book filled with templates, suggestions and engaging ideas can be found here. A reproducible and engaging Bulletin Board and Poster book of Do’er Duck can be found here. A fun planting journal with Do’er Duck can be found here. A fun activity book with Do’er Duck can be found here. Teaching a child to persevere is vital in their growth. If they are afraid of failure they will not try to accomplish great things and we all know that the sky is the limit! In the words of Do’er Duck: “Never Give Up” and encourage progress within your child, show them it can be done, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. All of the ol’ cliche’s are true! One of my favorites is, “If you don’t try it, you’ll never know” To be honest, I feel that to make progress many times one needs to step out of their comfort zone. I had to do this myself. However, I am so happy that I did because it made me aware of my strength, my courage and taught me so many new lessons which I can then apply to my daily life. Don’t be afraid to try, to step forward, walk if you must, but, I encourage you to make progress. No regrets!
TELL me and I forget, TEACH me and I remember, INVOLVE me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin
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