5 For Friday: 5 Things I Learned in January

Over the years I've learned that one of my favorite things to do is, well learn.   Perhaps it's because I graduated with a degree in Elementary Education or just have a fondness for reading?  Not really sure, but I love learning new things.  Oddly enough, one of the things I've learned is that writing things down is really effective to that process.  Since I started my year with the goal of 'more sleepless nights' for reals...I'm expecting lots of opportunities to learn new things. I thought I'd write them down and share them along the way...some might be more earth-shattering than others. ;)

1. I never should have quit Grey's Anatomy.  I remember watching this when I was first married (yes, that long ago) and then moved on after a couple seasons.  Feeding a baby nonstop I needed something more than House Hunters to watch, so Grey's it was.  I'm to season 7 (I think) and I'm officially hooked.  That being said, no series will ever be as good as Parenthood and Friday Night Lights...I mean, I might need to re-watch them both. So good.  

2. Podcasts at 1.5 speed are incredible. It seems a year ago or so, I was listening at this pace and then somehow got off the bandwagon.  i just jumped back on and WOW I'm listening to, well...1.5x more.  I've about exhausted my podcast lineup, so tell me what you're listening to, please!  Pretty sure I'm going to have to bite the bullet & get a subscription to Audible.  Do you have one? Do you love it?  I hate a monthly subscription fee, but if you saw my Amazon book ordering habit, you'd tell me Audible makes way more sense.  

3. The small things matter.  Life is always busy and sometimes it gets busier.  When it gets busier sometimes I think I'll let a few things slide and dinner becomes pizza and workouts disappear and then you know what?  I feel lousier than I did before & am not even sure what I accomplished by giving those things up.  In January, I re-committed myself to doing the small, everyday things and guess what?  Life feels great.

4. Everyone has a frustrating 5.  While problem-solving with one of my kids I told him that every single person in our house has a frustrating 5.  This means that 5% of what they do will drive you crazy.  The real kicker is that  you don't get to change that 5%.  In fact, it's just the opposite.  Home is the safe place where they get to fly that 5% and we all get to learn how to love the heck out of them.  The real trick is to not worry about the 5% at all and just focus on the other 95%.  When you do, that other 5% just starts to disappear...or becomes your favorite little qwerk about a person you love.  Now when I can tell I'm bugging my kids, I just tell them, 'hey this is my frustrating 5...' then I smother them with hugs and kisses and ask them how much they love me. They'll probably need therapy one day. 

5. Sometimes you can't fix the problem.  I just wrote out: Life feels great, but if I'm being honest there we some really hard days for me in January.  I'm naturally a 'solver' or a 'fixer.'  I don't mind a hard conversation or digging in for hours on a hard project or deadline to get where I want to be.  This month though, I learned I just have to make like Elsa sometimes and 'let it go.'  Easier said than done, but at the end of the day, sometimes you just have to let life run it's course and hope some things solve themselves.  sigh...I'm pretty sure I'll have to learn this again and again.  Happy to report that at least this time I squeezed that gap on it & worked through it faster than I did in the past. 

Over the years I've learned that one of my favorite things to do is, learn.   Perhaps it's because I graduated with a degree in Elementary Education or just have a fondness for reading?  Not really sure, but I love learning new things.  Pretty sure that has been evident in my path of creating and learning business after business.  Oddly enough, one of the things I've learned is that writing things down is really effective to that process.  Since I started my year out with the goal of 'more sleepless nights' I knew this year would be a year of  I keep trying to convince my daughter of this in regards to her spelling tests...waiting for it to totally sink in.  In