What would you like to acknowledge yourself for today? That may seem like a simple question, and yet, if you try to answer it, you may have some difficulty. Our minds don't always work that way. "Acknowledge myself?" Sometimes when I ask myself this question, the answer is "NOTHING!" This if then followed by a litany of everything that the little voice in my head feels I am not doing well enough or often enough.

What about you? Take a minute. Ask yourself the question. What is the first thing you hear? You may hear some negativity at first, but keep listening. The answer is in there, I promise!

At the end of every session, I ask my clients this question and the answers range from "I want to acknowledge myself for not eating that donut this morning," to "I was finally able to ask my boss for that raise, and she gave it to me!"

O.k., so you might be wondering, what's the point? Why do this? Is this simply a tool for patting ourselves on the back? (and that's not such a bad thing by the way) Not really. Here's the deal - what you focus on expands. If you focus on what is working, you'll get more of it. And of course, the opposite is true. So take a minute to ask yourself and then ask the people you love too. What can they acknowledge themselves for? What can all of us acknowledge ourselves for today?

Did you ever find yourself thinking "I am just too BUSY! I have too much to do. I am overwhelmed, underpaid, stressed out and not enjoying any part of my life, EVER!" I too, find myself experiencing those days, weeks and months, at times. It feels like everything is a burden, everything is hard, and I am not enough.

My clients go through these periods also. As I work with my clients, I have shared many tools with them to help them to shift perspective and ease the process of being too busy. It's a fine balance though. We like to have enough to do, but not too much to do. Like a dessert souffle, it can be divine, but if we get the ingredients wrong, we may watch it crumble before our eyes. So what is this phenomena of "too busy?" How can we begin to take smaller bites and look at the contents of this souffle?

One way is to adopt "Busy bad to busy good." Let's say, you look at your day and it is all just too darn busy - let's face it, it's busy bad. Now start to take apart your day - what are you busy with? Do you have to go to the gym? Why? Does this make you feel good about yourself in the long run? Are you running to pick up your kids? Are your kids a gift in your life? Do you have to pack for a vacation, buy a new dress for that party or hire a babysitter so you and your husband can go out? Is some of this busy-ness, buying you "busy good?"

If we can start to separate busy bad and busy good and see the tasks in life that lead us where we want to go, as positive, we will lessen the burden of "busy."

Here's a thought that one of my absolutely fabulous clients (I learn so much from watching the courage and creativity of my clients!) sent to me today about "busy bad to busy good" related to a diet that she is on:

"Regarding Busy Good Busy Bad. I’m not sure why, but this simple little thing has really been a great jumping off point for my attitude in general. I realized that I was really having a victim attitude related to this diet I’m on which has recently become increasingly restrictive. But then, I realized what a great opportunity it is to be healthy and take good care of my body. I’ve been trying to tell myself that all along. But I noticed that I still need to be paying attention to my attitude. One way is to look at it using Busy bad to busy good. It is simple and snaps me back to the positive."

What a great way to utilize the tool. I would love to hear your thoughts about this or any other posting to this blog. You can email me at tenzer@lifeworks4ucoaching.com. To sign up for my e-zine, that is filled with quick tips for busy women and supermom secrets, please visit www.lifeworks4ucoaching.com.