This conversation is sponsored by GoldieBlox. Please read to the end for a chance to win an amazing toy set for girls!
When you read the things that I write, do you assume that I live in a perfect little world, as I share with you all the perfect little things that I do? Ha. Well, maybe you don’t really think that, knowing that I’m sidetracked and all, but … as bloggers, we can give the appearance that we are better than we really are, because we like to show you the good stuff. We often don’t sit around and tell you about what a rotten job we’re doing in certain areas of life. We especially don’t let you see the backgrounds of our messiest rooms in our pictures, if we can at all help it. Nobody really likes to dwell on their own negative qualities now, do they?
Even though I’m typically an optimistic person, sometimes I feel like such a failure of a mother and wife. Here’s some thoughts that are often going through my head….
- Why can’t you be thin like ___________?
- If you would actually stick to a weight loss program for longer than 2 months, you’d be thin by now!
- Why can’t you be more organized like _____________?
- If I were a better mom, my kids would be clean right now.
- I bet all of my friend’s have already gotten dinner on the table and I’m just now trying to figure out what to have. I’m such a bad mom and wife.
- If I were a better blogger, my site would be in better order, I’d have more consistent content and I’d have a million pageviews like ________.
- My kids would be happier if we did all those cool science experiments like __________.
- Everyone will love you more if you’re ______________ (thinner/more organized/awesome/fill in the blank).
- You’ve been trying to lose weight for so long, nobody believes you ever will. (Ouch)
Are you hard on yourself, like I am? It’s not an all the time thing, but sometimes those thoughts start creeping in and, suddenly they start taking over, making you feel miserable! In fact, my biggest failure mindset lately has been about losing weight. Even though I’ve done well, I tend to fall back into old habits when I reach a certain timeframe and I have really struggled with if it’s really worth the effort to lose the weight. I know in my mind that it is, but I have a hard time implementing it with my actions….making me feel even more like a failure. It’s like I’m going round and round with myself.
I have 5 daughters and we’ve been talking about doing hard things. I want my daughters to know that they can do most anything they put their mind to. While I want them to be feminine and lady like, they can also be strong and confident. In order to be strong and confident, they must embrace some basic principles. Like…..
1. Stop Comparing Yourself to Others!
If you look up at my list, you’ll notice that most of the things I’m hard on myself for are because I’m comparing myself to others. Comparison is such a bad thing to get wrapped up in, if you are doing it in a negative way. Who cares how clean, organized, fun, skinny or whatever else anyone is. Who cares if I don’t do things like my next door neighbor. I am not my next door neighbor! Each of us has a unique way we handle situations, and that is based on all of our experiences in life so far. So, please, ladies, don’t compare yourself or your children to anyone else. Lets teach our children, that it’s OK to be unique. Imagine how boring life would be if we were all exactly the same. There would be no spontaneity at all!
2. Don’t Be Afraid to Try New Things
One of the ways that we help instill confidence into our daughters is by making them do things that they may think are too hard. Things that they wouldn’t normally tackle on their own. We have been known to have them mowing the lawn and painting right alongside us at an early age, just to instill that confidence that they can do this, even if it seems hard. I grew up believing I could do anything and I want my daughter’s, and all of my children to think in the same way. There’s no need to be inhibited by self doubt.
Last week, we received a neat little toy set in the mail called GoldieBlox. It is a building set for girls, where you can build many different architectural type designs…one of which is a zip line that a cute little doll named Goldie can ride down. I was heading for the store and my girls were dying to get into the box, but weren’t sure they wanted to tackle it without mom by their side. There were lots of pieces that they weren’t sure what to do with. I assured them that they’d be OK and to just give it a try and see what they think. Not only did they figure it out, but they had a ball doing it. (It’s fun when you’re not afraid to try hard things!)
Later they decided to take it outside to the playhouse where they could tie the zip line at a much larger angle and send their unsuspecting doll crashing gliding down the zip line. Here they are, getting ready to launch her:
They were so proud of themselves for figuring this out without my help! I was proud of them, too!
3. If You Fail, Dust Yourself Off and Try Again
If you fail, do you just quit? Do you say never again? Do you know how many times I’ve failed at losing weight? Can you imagine how much larger I’d be if I never tried again? While I have not ever met my long term goal, I have not all out failed either. I have hit bumps in the road. Life happens. Habits and happenings get in the way of the best laid out plans, but all that means is that you must continue trying. Don’t roll over and play dead. If we quit trying, we teach our kids that it’s OK to give up. We must not go there with them. I want my daughters to know what to do when they hit those bumps in the road. It’s OK to cry for a short time, but it can’t last long, because there’s work to be done! Wallowing in self pity simply is not allowed. Nobody conquers the world while they’re feeling sorry for themselves!
We must never let fear of failure stop us from trying!
Do you know how many times famous inventors have failed before they found the winning idea? Thomas Edison is famous for a quote that says,
I have not failed, I have just found 1000 ways that won’t work.
Let me encourage you to embrace the habit of trying hard things. Let’s teach our daughters that it’s OK to fail as long as we learn from those failures. Failure can lead to innovation!
Are you interested in learning more about GoldieBlox?
We received this kit in the mail and had a ball putting things together.
My girls’ favorite was making the zip line, but then went on to build a dog house, by following the carefully laid out instructions in the spiral bound instruction book.
They will be building more and more as time goes on. I was so impressed with how they made their instruction book spiral bound. It will be so much harder to lose those instructions full of ideas of what they can build now! Of course, they can always explore on their own and come up with their own creations, too! You can get 20% off of any purchase for GoldieBlox toys by using this discount code before April 5th:
Spring2015-88d39ec8
Giveaway
If you’d like to be entered into a giveaway for a Goldie Action Figure and Builder’s Kit, please leave a comment below sharing about a time that you failed and bounced back.
Leave a Reply