Day #1: Catapulting to Change

--> From The Orange Rhino:

Good morning, 

Let me start by saying Congratulations! You have already taken the first step of learning to yell less. You have sent me an email saying that you want to change. Change is hard, but you have gone after it. You have taken action – pat yourself on the back for that. Seriously. So much of this challenge is learning to celebrate small achievements in order to build self-confidence.  

I know everyone wants to jump in and get the secrets to not yelling today. I know people might think “oh I’ve signed up for a 30 days of not yelling challenge, today is the first day to not yell. I have 29 more to go!” If you don’t yell today AWESOME. But truly, for me, the key to learning not to yell was preparation. It was digging deep and learning about myself and figuring out what I needed to do to succeed. So before we jump into practicing not to yell, we have some preparation to do.

TODAY’s THOUGHTs:

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy (or gal) who'll decide where to go.”

~ Dr. Seuss

This is YOUR 30 days. Yes, I will guide you but ultimately, you are one who will decide where you will go.  Let your brains do the thinking but let your heart, your love for your children and yourself, push you forward.

“You have to work harder than you think you possibly can…And it doesn't matter how you get knocked down in life; that's going happen. All that matters is you've got to get up.” 

~Ben Affleck

I love Ben Affleck, always have, always will. And today I love him for his quote last night during his acceptance speech. All that matters in this challenge is that you try and you get back up. You can do this!

Quote from the movie Apollo 13:
NASA Director: “This could be the worst disaster NASA's ever faced.”

Gene Kranz: “With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour.”

Sometimes, our worst moments catapult us to challenge ourselves to push harder, to try new things and to ultimately succeed and have our finest hour. I know you have had at least one of those moments; that is why you are here!

TODAY’s ACTIONs:

1. In order to say at the end of 30 days that you are yelling less, you need to know where you started. You need to see how many times you got knocked down…and how many times you are not just getting up and trying again, but succeeding. On a piece of paper, either in a journal or single sheet, draw a line down the middle. Write YELLED on one side, LOVED on the other. All day, every time you yell put a tally mark in that side, every moment you caught yourself and didn’t yell put a tally in the loved side. At the end of the day, put this piece of paper somewhere you can see it for motivation. At the end of the 30 days we’ll do this again and hopefully the # of times yelled is significantly less!

2. In this blog post, write down the one yelling moment that you feel was the worst parenting disaster ever; the moment you don’t like to talk about. Be descriptive. How did you feel in the moment? Minutes later? Days or months later? What did your kids faces look like? What did they say?  *Post your experience in the comments section below.*

Sharing this moment will be hard but it will help you many times. You’re going to use that moment to catapult you to change, to catapult you to your finest hour. Learning to yell less is hard; you need two things pushing you up. External support, which you’ll get here and others, and internal motivation. My internal motivation came from my love for my kids and the harsh, embarrassing moment I realized I yelled too much. Embrace your “disaster” moment and let it no longer be seen as your worst moment ever but as the moment that changed you for the better!!

You need this moment to:

~ Remind you why you are committing to this challenge

~ Give you confidence about your commitment. When people ask you why are you doing this, share your moment. The more you tell it the more you will realize, yes, I need to change. I want to change. I don’t want that moment again; I’ve made the right decision to work hard!

~ Inspire you when you want to quit

It’s a lot to take in for one day, but I wanted to make sure we started off but these two exercise are key to getting going.

Here we go! You can do this!

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Jenna's note:  I'll go first...see my comment below.  
P.S.  My comment is in no way a "model" to follow.  You may not have had one big blow-up like I did that inspired you to join this group.  Whatever you would like to pinpoint as your reasoning for wanting to change is what you should write.  If you'd rather just write it in a private journal, that's fine too!  Sharing is optional.