Have you ever undertaken what seemed a never ending project? Perhaps you got a quarter of the way through it and then reality set in and you felt as though you’d never finish. “Just look at how much remains to be done!” you whimpered to yourself as you scanned the remaining paperwork.
Or maybe you got half way through, you were a little spent but feeling good about your progress, then Bill showed up and started berating how slowly you were coming along. “Just look at how much you’ve yet to cover!” he bellowed and left you in the emotional dumps.
This is when some method of physically tracking your progress comes in handy.
During WWI some public places displayed maps with colored pins representing the different army lines stuck in them. When one army line advanced its position, the coordinating pins for that line were advanced. When one army line retreated, the coordinating pins for that line were moved backward. This was how civilians could see the progress of the war.
You can do something similar during your war or someone else’s war with discouragement over progress.
It can be as simple as a kanban board tracked on sticky notes or a dry erase board or just a line marked at increments of, say, quarters. Tasks on the kanban move or the line grows longer and closer to the finish line as progress is made. Instead of focusing on where you are not, you turn your attention to how far you’ve come, and you celebrate that.
You can bring greeting cards into the mix by listing completed tasks or drawing out the line inside a card and offering your congratulations. A card can make the moment feel more celebratory, too.
Grab your weapons and stand firm!
To your card giving,
Grace Arant
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