Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

"The mere fact that you are taking the time to write out your goals puts you in the elite of America."

Janine Bolon in Money...It's Not Just For Rich People

As you can tell from my posts, Janine is my new favorite money guru. She says that only 3% of us have written goals and it's not a coincidence that the truly wealthy of our country also make up the top 3% of the U.S. population.

Now don't you feel special for participating in Smart Habit Saturday? You are amoung the elite of America! I think that is one of the things that makes SHS so amazing. We want to create positive new habits to improve our lives and we are much more likely to achieve our habit goals because we are writing them down and refering back to them.

I have been working on new habits for my kids in a way that I swore I would never do. I have spent this last year teaching my kids how to work so they are great at cleaning up their messes and doing jobs around the house. Not making messes in the first place, they are not so good at.

I have spent the last week encouraging the kids in a not so positive way to keep their things picked up. It all started with my nervous breakdown last week when we were getting ready to go to the lake and we couldn't find several things we needed because people don't put things away when they're finished with them. I now have the kids names on my chaulk board and if I find anything they have used that's not put away, I put a mark by their name. This will help all of us see where they need improvement. I think most of the time they just aren't aware of how many times they leave their things out when they know better.

I don't want to make it a reward or punishment thing, just something to make them more aware of their actions. The first day we made a goal to keep the marks below ten and the next day nine, etc. I am going to add something more positive this week though. I'm going to write their names down again and make a mark every time I see something they have used in it's proper place. I think adding this posistive side will relieve me of my Mother guilt and help them see they are making progress.

I kept trying to inspire them to motivate themselves but it just wasn't happening and that has to change before I completely lose my mind! So what happens when I stop with the check marks? Will the kids keep putting their things away? Hopefully they will be in the habit of doing it by then so they will. Time will tell if I am permanently damaging them or teaching them positive new habits!

I'm posting this early because I'm going to be gone all day and home very late tonight. I can't wait till Blogger gets with the program and starts auto-posting. Have a great week everyone!

A daily checklist for habits you can edit for yourself - Smart Habits

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