Tag: examine

Connecting the dots helps you analyze your attitudes. Take a few minutes at the end of the day. Think through your day. How would you define your day, good, bad, or just so-so?

How do you label your days?

The thing about connecting your dots is that it really helps you analyze why you labeled your days the way you did. For example, did you label a day as good because everything went right or because you finally solved a big problem?

Did you have a bad day because you worked hard all day on a project? Why would you label that as a bad day? What would be your criteria for a so-so day?

Ask some intentional questions

And then if you ask yourself some questions, like these below, it might help you decide why you label a day the way you do. For example, I have worked three days on the computer working on my book. I am exhausted. Some might label it a bad day because I was chained to the chair. But I thought it was a great day.

It was great because I was thoroughly engaged in what I was doing. I was constantly practicing the disciplines of faith. Yes, I felt frustrated and confused but I found myself constantly going back to the well and drinking living water. It was mind-boggling but if someone asked me if I had a good day, I would shout, “Yes”.

I refused to let my joy be swallowed up because I was tired or confused.

Living intentionally

There are some days we have a “so-so” kind of a day. Nothing stellar but nothing bad either. We meander willy-nilly through our day. never deliberately choosing anything.

We let life just swallow us up. I prefer to go to bed knowing I was a little more intentional about what I did that day. That’s not to say I don’t have some willy-nilly days but I usually plan for them. And, yes, there are some days that are not planned. But most people, including me, do better with structured days.

Develop a plan

Tailor your questions for yourself. Maybe you could write out your questions and put them on your bed stand.  How about on your phone? Maybe they won’t even be questions.  Maybe a chart or just some bullet points. It’s just a way to track your day, to connect the dots of your actions and feelings.

• Who did you spend time with?
• How were your health habits today?
• How often did you find yourself using negative words?  
• Did you practice your faith’s disciplines?
• Did you do something you really enjoyed?  (I beat my husband on “Words with Friends by 100 points and he never loses so I really enjoyed that.

It’s whatever works best for you. You might prefer just to take a minute or two and reflect. You might be a journaler. It’s a good thing to examine your life, not morbidly just reflectively so that tomorrow will be better than today. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Since I have been using my BUJO (Bullet Journal), I’ve really managed to come to the end of each day and feel really good about them, even days where I didn’t accomplish a lot anyone could see but I spent quality time in prayer and Bible study.

Labeling your days is revealing

Seriously, there’s nothing wrong with looking back over your day and then labeling it. Because those labels say something. If you’ve been labeling most of your days on the negative side, and nothing bad has been going on, you might want to ask why. And, believe it or not,

if you’ve been labeling most of your days on the positive but a lot of negative things have been going on, you might also want to ask why? I say that because:

Aids in reflection

It’s just as .bad to be consistently “yay, yay” as it is to be “nay, nay” about life. There’s nothing wrong with saying you had a bad day or just a so-so day. That s not the point of this post. The point of this post is to just connect the dots of your day and be reflective about.

Tweet.

We don’t have to be rigid about this. We don’t have to do it every day. Start seeing the pattern, and the words you use

God bless and have a good day.