I already told you about my SLP New Year’s Resolutions. My personal resolution is to be happy. I mean that is really easy A LOT of the time. But sometimes it’s too easy to complain. Life has ups and downs and that’s ok but my goal is to see the HAPPINESS in every day.
My other resolutions are to actually make some dinners (and stop eating bagels and cereal every night) and to drink my recommended 8 glasses of H2O every day.
I love my job. There isn’t any other job I want to do. But sometimes I just want to stay at home and watch Downton Abbey and not work at all! I know we all get tired and then my happy meter tends to drop! Tomorrow when someone asks me “How was break?” I hope I choose to say ‘GREAT!” (because is was) and not “not long enough”. I think about what my teachers, secretaries, and fellow SLPs hear me say at work. “sigh, this paperwork is killing me”, “I just can’t get her to participate”, “is it 3:30 yet?” I know I say positive things too, but I don’t know if I say them enough. So my goal is to be positive every. single. day.
So here’s my plan. I made a SLP Happiness Jar! I wrote 50 positive comments, jokes, quotes, etc. When I’m having a rough day I’m going to pull out a piece of paper and remember to find my happiness.
Let me show you how you can make your own happy jar in just 3 minutes. Gather a jar (my sparkle jars are from the Target Dollar Spot), scissors, and print out my 50 Happy Thoughts Freebie from Teachers Pay Teachers.
The printable includes quotes, verses, jokes, and other ideas for SLPs. Feel free to add things specific to yourself!
Fold those slips in half and add them to your jar!
Viola! Keep your Happiness Jar on your desk. If you catch yourself having a bad day just pull out a slip of paper. Then remind yourself that you’re awesome and turn that frown upside down!
On a similar note, I made myself an empty jar to keep at home. I’m writing down happy moments that happen throughout the year on little slips. When the year is done I can pull them out and reflect on what a HAPPY year it was 🙂
So those are my happy resolutions. I’m wishing you a happy year too! Show me a picture if you make a Happiness Jar for your desk. Just tweet or instagram it with #speechroomnews!
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This is great! My fiance and I started a ‘blessings’ jar last year. We each wrote down events and thoughts that made us happy/feel blessed throughout the year. Then on the first weekend of this year we each read the other’s notes out loud. It was so much fun and it reminded us of all the great things we did throughout the year – several of which we completely forgot even happened!
Thanks so much for sharing your SLP happy thoughts! We all need a boost every now and then. 🙂
I saw the blessings jar on Pinterest last year but didn’t do it! How cool that there were things you forgot! I can’t wait to see all the happy things that happen in 2015! I think the Happy Jar at work will really help too! Thanks for reading!
Love this so much. No one understands and SLP like another SLP.
Wow!
Great idea Jenna. As an SLP I spend a lot of my day motivating others. Your idea will help keep me motivated and my emotional well more full.
Thanks so much!
That is SO TRUE! We often forget to “fill” our own buckets. I struggle with this and it leads to me being less motivated and present in sessions some days. Thanks Jenna for the idea.
At the beginning of school this year I told all my preschool teachers & fellow SLPS that I had been setting the goal to be more organized for the past 29 years & since I hadn’t achieved it yet that I was going to set a new goal, & that was “To be happy.” I told them that if they heard me grousing & complaining that they were to start singing to me “Cause I’m happy!” just like Pharrell! I was amazed that many of them came to me in the coming weeks & said things like, “I was in a really bad mood & then I thought of you singing ‘Cause I’m happy’ & I was able to shake it off,” or “I started complaining to a teacher about a student & then I heard you in my head singing, ‘Cause I’m happy!” I found it so interesting that by telling others that I was focusing on being happy, it made them think about being happier & more positive too! Wouldn’t that be an interesting study? Are you familiar with the fb page & app Happier? It is based on scientifically proven ways to be “Happier.” It is really uplifting! On the app people post pictures & comments about what makes them happy. The fb page has lots of great quotes, etc. Here’s the link to a TED talk by the founder of Happier. /www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKaCN0-kpVE I started a gratitude journal this year-everyday I write 3 things I’m grateful for, as well as things I want to pray about. I love your jar idea! I’m making one for each of my preschool teachers since I don’t have an office of my own. Thanks for doing all the work & letting me reap the benefits!
What a cool benefit of your sharing! I love it!!! I will have to watch that TED talk!
Thank you Jenna! Not long ago I bought a book of positive thoughts to help some of my students, as they get upset and put themselves down a lot. I printed a quote for them by Michael Jordan “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” So, a students’ happy jar may be an even better thing to do with the rest of the quotes in the book!
Have a great 2015!
Claudia
Oh I LOVE that quote from the great MJ!! Cool!
I LOVE this, and this was much needed today after a discussion with our school psychologist about all the assessments coming up in the very near future. It will be very easy to get discouraged and down about it. For Christmas, I was given a cute mason jar with my name on it, and I will put these affirmations in there! Just printed them off on colored paper to do it. Thank you for this!
PERFECT timing!!! 🙂 Stay Happy Judy! You can do it!
Love this! And your jar is sooo cute! Thanks for the freebie!
Thanks, friend!
Really cute! My goal is to be more positive, too! A teacher I worked with my first two years loved this quote that I’m aiming for as my mantra in 2015: Be the most positive and enthusiastic person you know” I actually did a blog post in November about staying positive and how, on a particularly rough day, I sat down and I started writing down all the positive things I could think of that had happened with my students in the past few weeks. I wrote each one on a pretty piece of paper (I randomly had some 4×6 scrapbook paper in my desk!) and put it in a box. I try to add to it regularly, so that on future tough days, I can pull it out and read about happy things that have happened! It really helped to put me in a good mood while I was writing them down! I think I will add your happiness jar to my desk, too– one can never have too much happy 🙂
I love that quote!!!! Perfect!!
I like this idea….I think I may try something like this next school year using fun & memorable things that happen with my speech students. I think it would be a great reminder of things to review at the end of the school year.
Jenna, I like your first idea!! Lets stay home and watch all 4 seasons of DOWNTON ABBEY!!
You get the tea and I’ll bring the strawberry crepes. We’ll generate lots of positive thoughts as we contemplate Lord Gilliagham, Mr Blake or Jimmy. LOL
My husband and I made the empty happiness jar 2 years in a row & we read the strips on New Years Day. Such a great way to look back on the year.
I love this! You are so creative! Thank you for sharing and more importantly making me smile! My thing to stop saying is, “Six and a half years to go!”