How do you determine a good day?

When you turn the lights off at night and crawl under the covers, how do you determine if you’ve had a good day?

I’m reminded of the line that says, “Any day above ground is a good day.”

I’ve heard friends who work with the public who say, “Well I didn’t kill anybody.”

Seriously though, what do you focus on when you evaluate your day?

If you’re in sales or retail I guess that’s easy to measure. Did you hit your sales goal or did you meet your quota?

Healthcare probably looks at the number of cases handled and the outcome of those cases.

When I was doing the morning radio show we only had ratings come out every six months so I would say I had a good show if it flowed well, had good energy, interesting callers and usually those four hours flew by so I considered that a good sign. If I ended the show with more material than we needed I figured that was a good sign that some other topic took off.

When my disability hit, I had to reevaluate a bit. Sometimes a good day was when I could get myself dressed. Other times I just tried for a little bit of an improvement with my physical therapy.

Now that I’m writing I consider it a good blog if I get a reaction from folks. I try not to get sucked into the social media analytics— how many likes, shares, views—— it’s more important to me if someone reaches out with a comment or their own story because then I feel like I connected with you.

I bring this up because I think sometimes we are too hard on ourselves. Am I the only one who lies awake at night sometimes thinking, “I should have done this,” or “I should have done that?” I think we could all use a reminder to focus on what’s important.

I had a long day watching my grandson Liam this week when both my daughter and son-in-law had long days. They both have challenging careers so it’s not totally unexpected when this happens. I usually tell them, “That’s why I’m here!” It was close to a ten-hour day with the rascal and when I went upstairs to bed I told my daughter, “I feel like I ran out of ideas for what to do with him.” She said something like, “I’m sure he had fun.” Once I climbed under the covers I realized a few things: We laughed, we played, he had a full belly, we watched some Mickey Mouse, and he was happy when his mommy and daddy got home. I guess I did my job.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is …. at the end of the day, if you doubt your performance or accomplishments, ask yourself: “Is everyone okay? Will this really matter in five years or even five minutes?” And probably most importantly. “Am I being too hard on myself?”

If you really think you could have done better or more, well there’s your plan for tomorrow!