New habits

I have been trying very hard this week to not look for contingency plans however, there have been times where it has been too easy for me to fall into those old habits.  Along with all of that, I have also been trying to not beat myself up when I do slip into those old habits.  I know that it will take time to create new habits and I will just have to keep trying to encourage myself to find those new habits.

One of the new habits that emerged is when I was out running errands this weekend, I happened to look at an end-cap display at one of the stores (which is something I try and avoid because you tend to then buy things you wouldn't normally from those displays and that's why they're there) and a wall hanging caught my eye.  The wall hanging was the only one of its kind from what I could see so I bought it (and while I'm sure they'll have it in stock again, I didn't want to necessarily take the chance of when that might be).  The surprising thing about me selecting this particular wall hanging as one to bring home it it's an inspirational wall hanging.  Now you may be surprised by that since I am often very cynical but the saying on it spoke to me and I think it's something that I need to have hanging on my wall.  At this point, you may be wondering what the wall hanging said...  Well, I'll tell you...  =)

Take PRIDE in how far you have come & FAITH in how far you will go.

People have told me this along my quest and I figure it's about time I have a visual reminder of it that I can see each and every day.  The colors in the wall hanging match the color scheme in my bathroom so I'm going to hang it on the wall there so I can see it every day as I'm getting ready for work and I can see it before I go to bed each night.  I know that the challenge for me will be to not only read the words but to also learn how to apply them to my everyday life.  We'll just have to wait and see how that goes for me...

One of the (many) places I would like to learn how to apply this saying is in my dancing.  I am very much so my own worst critic when it comes to any of my dance opportunities.  I had a performance last night and I once again felt the need to tear it apart move by move.  People in the audience (both dancers and non-dancers) told me that I did a good job but I just felt as if my movements were rusty (I haven't really danced other than to practice the occasional move for the past almost 3 weeks).  Now I do take responsibility for not rehearsing but that will change as of tomorrow since the studio will reopen in order to prepare for a really important dance performance.  One of the reasons why I haven't been rehearsing (or working out) as I should be is I was trying to rest my joints in the hope they would heal.  Hopefully diving back into intense rehearsals starting tomorrow won't make things hurt again since I'm starting to feel better...

Tomorrow I get to have the day off of work but I will spend it studying.  Through work I have had an opportunity to attend a two day class (had class one this past week and class two this coming week) and the class this week has three parts -- we have to give a lecture, do a skills assessment and then a written test.  I am trying really had not to come up with a contingency plan and "what if" everything to death (have done it some by worrying about what might happen if I do a poor job with the presentations, if I fail the test, etc).  I guess all I really can do is study hard and prepare as best as I can before going to the class and then do the best job I can with each of the portions of the day.

Well, since I have a day full of studying ahead of me, I should probably shut this down for tonight and think about heading to bed.  Have a great week, dear readers and I hope we can all remember to Take PRIDE in how far you have come & FAITH in how far you will go.  =)