Tag Archives: appreciation

Appreciate the tiny wins

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Tiny wins are often hard to see. They don’t seem significant, but they accumulate.

James Clear explains in Atomic Habits that 1% better daily will compound into becoming 37 times better in a year.

You don’t go heavier on a lift in the gym, but you eke out a couple extra reps.

You walk into a coffee shop and get right to the counter before a rush of people that have to line up behind you.

You hit almost every green light on your way home from work.

You actually enjoy a meal that sounds too healthy to be tasty.

You write a single sentence and suddenly your muse has arrived.

We don’t always see them, we rarely celebrate them, but the tiny little things that we can choose to pay attention to and appreciate can be the highlight of the day… or the precursor to more wins, big and small, in the future.

Remembering to PAUSE (#OneWord)

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Just before the school year started I decided that I would choose a ‘#OneWord’ for the (school) year, and that it would be PAUSE. The tradition for One Word is to choose it to start the calendar year, but for my final school year I thought it was apropos.

I shared,

“There is a lot I’m going to miss when I leave this job, what I don’t want to do is miss things while I still have time to enjoy them. I’m going to seek out opportunities to take pause in my day and truly experience the things I cherish.”

This came to mind a few times from September to December, but not often enough. Moments where I spent a little extra time in a class, or didn’t just leave the class after one presentation so that I could see the next one. Moments where I sat to chat with staff rather than just sharing a message or asking a question then heading back to my office. Small pauses, meaningful but sparse.

This is my personal reminder to pause a little more often as I head to my end of the school year retirement… what I don’t want to do is miss things while I still have time to enjoy them.

Feeling gratitude

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I think that gratitude is something to be celebrated. It is felt more when it is expressed and reflected on, not just experienced in the moment.

Yesterday I turned 58. I got to have an early morning coffee with a good friend, and I got to meet my daughters for a quick lunch. I had a couple cakes and many well wishes at work. Then I went to dinner and a movie with my wife and daughters after work. We were unexpectedly met at dinner by my wife’s sister and my brother-in-law at dinner, which was a very pleasant surprise.

It was a wonderful day all around. It ended with a few thoughtful gifts and cards at home after the show. My daughters have had a tradition of making personalized, hand-drawn birthday cards and I have always adored the thoughtfulness they put into them.

I can’t help but want to share my gratitude towards family, friends, and colleagues. I feel lucky, and blessed. Every year around the sun makes me feel more appreciative for the life I have lived and the opportunity to share more of it with the people I love.

Appreciating time

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As I approach the age of 58, it’s not only clear that I’ve lived more than half my life, I’m approaching the point at which, if I’m lucky, I’ve got about 1/3 of a life left. That’s not a sad statement, it’s just the reality of the genetics I’ve been dealt.

It’s a wonderful reminder of how precious life is. It’s as wonderful reminder to pause, to appreciate tiny moments, to find a reason to smile, to laugh, and to share special moments with others.

When we find moments in our day to appreciate, the day has been worth spending. When we go through the motions of the day in order to get the day done, we’ve simply wasted the day. Are 100 wasted days worth as much as 25 meaningful ones?

And so counting the days is not as important as valuing them. We need to appreciate the time we have such that if today was going to be our last day, we can say that it was well spent. Stack a few hundred or a few thousand well spent ‘last days’ together and you’ve stacked up a life worth living, no matter how much time you’ve got left.

A day on the river

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I spent the day fishing with a buddy. It started out misty and looked like it might rain. It did rain, a light drizzle for all of five minutes, then it actually got sweltering hot.

I caught a big chinook that was well past its prime and a smaller pink salmon. It’s always great to catch fish on a fishing trip, even if they are not keepers.

Today I was reminded of what a wonderful part of the world we live in. Gorgeous fall weather, beautiful scenery, salmon on their final run, eagles, and even a seal who was fishing just like we were.

An old adage says, ‘A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work’. Is there an adage for a good day fishing? That’s the adage I need.

Totally fixated

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I get stuck on certain songs sometimes and I’m really stuck now. I stumbled on to an album called Folklore Riddim. I thought it was an album by an artist, but the first 3 songs had the exact same beat, and the 4th and final song was an instrumental with the same beat again.

Well, the joke was on me. It wasn’t an album by an artist. Folklore Riddim was the rhythm and the three songs were three different artists using that rhythm with their own lyrics. And now, about a month after finding this little album I’ve probably listened to the first song, Hello by KES about 250 times, Holing On by Turner 100 times, and Aye Yo by Sekon Sta 75 times. Yes, those totals are estimates, but no, they are not exaggerations.

Add one more listen to each of these as I’ve written this. The way I can get fixated on music is a bit obsessive. I know. I don’t care. These songs make me happy. I drive to them, play them on repeat in the gym, and find moments in the evening to just soak them in. In another month they will slip into my regular listens and I’ll find another obsession. But for now, thank you Kes for Hello, thanks to whomever wrote the original score, and thanks to whomever put this little album together… I love it!

Count your blessings

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Every day someone gets in an accident that they had no control over. Someone else gets a diagnosis they aren’t expecting. Someone else thinks they have job security, and then suddenly they don’t. This, and worse, happens every day.

Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate what you’ve got when nothing changes. You are just going through days ranging from appreciating, to accepting, to dealing with, to tolerating daily events, completely oblivious to how much harder things could be. Unaware of the challenges others just like you face. Ignorant of how fortunate you are to simply not have faced a more unlucky path.

You don’t need good news to count your blessings, you just need to recognize that the lack of bad news is actually something to be thankful for. And when less positive news does come, when things seem unfair, when hard times surface, there is strength in knowing that you’ve had blessed moments in your life.

The challenge is that it’s hard to appreciate how lucky, how blessed you’ve been, when times are tough… So pause and take a moment to build up your resilience by appreciating everything that’s good right now.

Last day

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It’s the last day of school for teachers. Summer break begins for them at 3pm today. I can’t help but feel a bit sentimental at the end of each school year. It really hit me at our grad on Monday, and now again today.

I feel blessed to work at the schools I do. I feel lucky to work with the staff that I do.

It our district we tend to see administrative shuffles around 5 years, and occasionally a principal might stay in a school for 7-8 years. This is my 12th year with Inquiry Hub and 13th with Coquitlam Open Learning. Although most of those years I was actually vice principal, I have been the lead administrator for 11.5 years. That’s rare.

The fact that I’ve been here, at these two unique schools, for this long has been a blessing. In all honesty, had I been moved, I probably would have resigned by now. It’s really, really hard to go back into a traditional box after spending so long out of the box.

But it’s not just the schools themselves that have me feeling sentimental, it’s also the staff. I’m truly lucky to work with the teachers and secretaries that I’ve had the honour to work with. It’s pretty special to walk into a building every day and want to be around the people who you work with.

It is great when I get the opportunity to join the staff in the staff room at lunch. It’s special when the secretaries volunteer their time at evening events because they want to be there to celebrate the students. It’s amazing to watch teachers consistently do what’s great for kids in innovative and creative ways.

On this last day of school I feel blessed. And while I’m certainly looking forward to summer, there is already a little excitement about starting the new year… but that’s getting way ahead of myself. First things first… I’m going to enjoy our last day.

The simple things

I came across this list recently:

The real luxuries in life:

time

health

a quiet mind

slow mornings

ability to travel

rest without guilt

a good night’s sleep

calm and “boring” days

meaningful conversations

home-cooked meals

people you love

people who love you back

I’m sure you can think of a thing or two to add to the list. There might also be an item on the list you wouldn’t include. The point isn’t to have an exhaustive or perfectly curated list… the point is to appreciate that life’s real luxuries are affordable, available, and attainable.

Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that make it worth living. Not the expensive meal or holiday. Not the elaborately planned event. Simply going for a walk with a friend, having a coffee with someone whose company you enjoy, or a moment of solitude in nature.

The real luxuries are simple, affordable, and life-enriching.

Fog and clarity

I have a very short commute to work, 7-8 minutes. My drive there is almost all down hill. On the way, there is a specific hill that allows me to see part of the neighbouring city up on another hill. For the past couple days it has been foggy and that city has looked like it is in the clouds.

I look out at this skyline every work day unless clouds, fog, or rain hinder the view. I mostly don’t pay attention to what I’m seeing, it’s just a background view to my drive. Then something like this fog makes me look again. I notice that it looks like a city in the clouds, and I re-examine the skyline. I appreciate how pretty it is.

This makes me wonder what else I ‘miss’ because of familiarity? What don’t I appreciate enough? What do I not see, despite it being right in front of me?

And no, I’m not just wondering about the view.