Over the summer, one of our neighbors put out a dog bowl and a sign that read something along the lines of:
Water bowl for dogs!
Refilled at 7am, noon, and 5pm!
There was another doggy watering hole in the neighborhood, but it was quite a bit farther away than this one, and the summer was HOT. It’s nice to have hydration stations along a walk route instead of carrying your own water, and Gloria prefers drinking from others’ bowls anyway.
But the water bowl didn’t last. Every time we came upon it, even if it wasn’t long after the designated refill times, it was dry as a bone, sitting sadly in the gutter.
I had a feeling the refill schedule was perhaps a little ambitious. It made me think of an artist that I follow on Instagram. A few years ago, they announced that they were going to post every weekday, and each day would have its own theme, like Work-in-progress Wednesdays and Throwing-clay Thursdays or whatever. (That’s not what they actually were, but those are good ideas! You can have them.) When I read the post, I remember thinking: “Yeah, right. Good luck.” I don’t think they kept it up for even a week.
I recently shared this list of 35 Simple Health Tips Experts Swear By on LinkedIn. We may be beyond the deadline for setting New Year’s resolutions (I don’t know, I don’t make the rules), but this is the perfect time to reassess them. Were we too ambitious? Too hard on ourselves? Downright delusional about what is actually possible? The list offers some great ideas of things you can do that are simple and easy to implement.
I also really like this nugget from the list, from Becky Kennedy, Clinical psychologist, parenting expert and founder of Good Inside:
“My second-grade teacher, Ms. Edson, told us: If something feels too hard to do, it just means that the first step isn’t small enough. So often when we’re struggling, we tell ourselves that it’s a sign that we’re broken or that something is our fault, and then we freeze. But when something is too hard in the moment, tell yourself Ms. Edson’s advice.”
I wonder where we’d be if the water bowl filler had started by just filling the bowl every morning. Or if the artist posted just once a week.
I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I do like setting goals for myself whenever I feel like it. Because I want to be able to look back and see how far I’ve come, it’s tempting to set big goals that require a huge commitment. But I’m more likely to attain those goals if the steps to accomplish them are small and relatively easy to do consistently.
So here’s to small steps, steady progress, and bowls that never run dry.
