Do it the same, but better.

Just being real honest with you right now, but most days I feel so ordinary that I wonder how on earth I could even consider myself a coach who helps women make the most of motherhood. I walk to my kids to school, I notice that it’s really time to wash the kitchen floor, I have a stack of clean laundry on my couch. I’m definitely not a supermum living in a Pinterest-perfect home.

But since most of the women I talk to everyday are just trying to figure out how to balance everything while nurturing their children and hopefully having some quality time with their partner or for self-care, I suppose that it’s okay to admit that I’m just part of the club. I have got a few tricks up my sleeve, but mostly I am dealing with the same daily bits and pieces of life that you are.

When I feel overwhelmed (otherwise known as the ‘it’s all too much, I’m sick of the mess in this house’ freak out which happens every four weeks or so…), it’s good to realise that a small change is sometimes going to make a difference.

Instead of thinking that I need to fix EVERYTHING, I can pick one area of the house or one part of my life that I know could be better. And I can think about what isn’t working for me at that point, and what it would look like if I made a few tweaks.

DO IT THE SAME, BUT BETTER

One of the technology-without-a-screen items we have in our house is the interactive, challenging game ‘Bop-It’. Once the game begins, it will give you an instruction that you need to follow: ‘twist it’, ‘pull it’, ‘bop it’. If you can possibly eliminate any distractions and keep going, you might get a high score. But if you are too slow or make a mistake, it will shame you with an insult! But one of the phrases that it uses if you get close to the high score is a bit more encouraging: ‘Do it the same, but better’.

When I think about the tweaks I need to make in my daily life for things that aren’t how I would like them, I think this is a really useful phrase. I don’t need to change everything… I just need to do it a little bit better.

Some examples:

At the moment, my shoes make it into my bedroom, but not into my wardrobe. Doing it better would mean I take 10 seconds to put the pair of shoes away.

One of the things that really annoys me is that I buy birthday cards and gifts ahead of time, but rarely actually send them on time. Doing it better would mean that I plan ahead and get those cards in the mail instead of feeling guilty about being late!

I know how helpful meal planning could be and I always have a vague idea of what I could make for dinner. Doing it better would be deciding on the five meals we’ll have for dinner this week, and making sure the ingredients are on my list before my weekly shop.

WANT SOME HELP TO ‘DO IT BETTER’?

If you feel like there are a few things in your life that you could tweak and they’d make an impactful change, I’ve got a super-easy-to-use worksheet called ‘No Ordinary Mum’ that’s easy to download. You can find it here as part of the Coaching Mum Resource Library – join up once and you’ll have access to a whole pile of worksheets and tools that will help you to thrive in your season of Motherhood!

I’d love to hear from you: what is one thing where you think you could ‘do it the same, but better?’ Comment below!