It All Begins as a Child

“Mommy, look! Come and see! Let me show you something! Guess what I did?” Those are the phrases that we hear from children all the time. They want to show us, they want us to look and see, and to celebrate their successes. They want to be recognized and they want to enjoy and share everything that they’re learning, everything that they’re doing, and everything that they’re accomplishing. 

Have you noticed that children can be so light, happy, energetic and motivated? They work on tasks that they think of while they are playing, and they just do them on their own. They work on them and persevere, and push through, and problem solve, and figure things out. For example, it’s natural for a child learning how to walk to stumble and fall. They trip over themselves, but they keep pushing on and pushing forward, because they want to do it, to be successful, and learn and grow. Children want to progress. 

Adults Want Success Too

As adults we want to learn and grow and progress, too. We come up with challenges, tasks, and things that we want to do that we think will help us to improve ourselves and improve our surroundings, get things done and help us feel accomplished. That’s when we create our to-do list. Perhaps the adult’s version of play, sometimes, is a to-do list. 

We create a list of things that we want to do, that we want to get done, things we want completed, and we write them on a list. Then, as we do them, we either check a box, or cross out the words, or highlight it as we complete these tasks.  At this point, what do we typically do with the list? Do we do what children do, sharing it, asking others to come and see? Do we celebrate our success, and talk about it, or do we just throw away the list and come up with a new list to work on? One list turns into another list turns into another list turns into another list. 

That sounds kind of heavy. It kind of takes the fun out of it a little bit, don’t you think? We spend so much time just writing these lists and accomplishing the list, and then we go and throw the list away. How demoralizing is that? 

Celebrate Success with a Ta-Da List!

How about, instead, we turn our to-do list into a ta-da list! Doesn’t that sound fun? It sounds motivating and fun, and like it could be just the tweak that we adults need on those to-do lists that we have. It sounds like if we could take a little bit of that childlike behavior of celebrating the success, sharing the success, and having someone else come and see what we’ve done, that maybe our to-do list won’t be so overwhelming or feel like drudgery. Maybe then the heaviness and the complications of adulthood can be subdued a little bit if we take the time to celebrate and turn that to-do list into a ta-da list.

How To Do a Ta-Da List

Now, here’s how you do it. Start with your to-do list. If you’re a list maker you know what this is. Maybe it’s a piece of paper, or it’s on your phone or your computer. However you do it, you write out all those things that you want to get done and accomplish. Have little check boxes, or a highlighter, or a pen on hand, and then you work through your list. Work on it, push through, make progress and get those things done. 

Complete the list like normal, but when you get to the bottom of the list, don’t throw it away. See, throwing it away is symbolic. What if a child learns how to build a sand castle, and then it gets destroyed before the child gets to take a picture of it, or share it with someone? They’re kind of upset, and rightly so! They worked hard on it. They built this castle and they wanted to celebrate, and they didn’t get the opportunity to celebrate their success. Well, that child’s going to be sad and disappointed, and we as adults think that we’ve grown out of feeling like that, but we haven’t. 

When we work hard on something and accomplish something it deserves a little bit of celebration and acknowledgement. But usually, after you work on this list, after you have prepared the list and you do all the deeds on the list, and cross them off, then you throw that away without sharing with anyone and without anyone having seen the accomplishment or acknowledged your hard work. It’s like knocking down that castle. 

You’ve Been Missing this Step

A little piece of you is going to be sad and a little disappointed, and the next time you go to create a list and work on it, you’re going to wonder why you’re not motivated. You’re going to wonder why you don’t finish the things on the list. You’re going to wonder why you just can’t get it done or why it seems so overwhelming. Well it’s because we’re missing a step. We’re missing the “Ta-Da!” We’re missing the “Look at this! Let’s celebrate. Let’s look at what we’ve done and be happy about it.” 

Add this to Your To-Do List

So take your to-do list when you’ve completed your project, whatever that list is, even if it’s a small one–even if it consists of things like “make bed,” “brush teeth,” “go to work today,” “come home from work,” and “don’t yell at anybody while driving through traffic,” maybe that’s your list–cross off those things. Find a partner, someone that you can celebrate your successes with, and share your successes. Share your to-do list, get that enthusiasm back, and the motivation will follow. Life will seem happier and more productive when you acknowledge everything that you do. You do a lot, you work a lot, and you try hard. So if you’re a to-do list maker, add to your to-do list, that at the end of the day or at the end of your tasks, you change your to-do’s into ta-da’s.   

I am so grateful for that insight and inspiration that my mom had. Do you ever feel like you don’t have time to prepare for something, or time to do something, or time to get ready for something? Do you have time for the have-to’s but not have time for the want-to’s, or would-like-to’s? I wonder if we considered switching things out, and consider what we really have to do or what’s really needed and maybe we’d find time to do the things that would be really nice that we want to do. Are there things in your life that you can switch out, when you really set them next to each other and consider what you really want? Is what you’re doing right now what you really want? Or is it just something you feel like you have to do? 

My mom knew she didn’t have time to do everything. She had to use her time and resources wisely. And she helped us make the choice too. So we knew what we were giving up and what we were gaining because of that choice. There are so many lessons to be learned from that example, but the one that I want you to take away is that we have these have-to’s or need-to’s or should-do’s that maybe aren’t have to or need to or should do. Maybe we can question it. Maybe we can look outside the box a little bit and see if we’re really spending our time where we want to spend our time and using our resources in the way that we want to.

Is there an area in your life where you’re doing something that you feel like you have to or should, but maybe it’s not tapping into the best that you have to offer or the thing that you really want to do? I encourage you to look into your life. I’ll bet you’ve already thought of something while you were reading this. You probably already thought of something that you’re wondering “Do I really have to do that? Wow, I’ve never considered…!” Sometimes we just don’t consider that we can do something different or switch things out. So with that thing that you thought of (or keep thinking, if you need to think some more), think of something even better that you can switch it out for. Because when you put things next to each other, and kind of weigh them, you may make a different choice, and get to do something that you consider to be better. Try it! Go and try it! I encourage you to do it.