Today is Day 1 of our pre-summer Squeeze week. Every day of the Squeeze participants receive a tip of the day. Today’s tip focused on affirmations. We asked everyone to complete the sentence I am __________. Our parameters were that it should be something positive but that it didn’t have to be something they regularly felt or told themselves. You can see some of their selections in the graphic above.
What is the saying, “we teach what we need to learn”? I don’t know if that’s the exact wordiing but that’s the gist. And the truth is I, and I think most people, fill my head with many thoughts, most of which are far from aspirational. “I could do better, I haven’t done enough, I need to….” is sort of the tape that runs on a loop in my type-A head.
Mid-morning, I scrolled my Facebook feed. This was my general “friend” feed and not our Squeeze FB group. A parent posted a photo, actually a montage of photos, of their child doing their sport of choice (purposefully trying to be vague). I get being proud of your kid. It feels great to see your children doing what they love. And if we’re being honest, as a parent we get a boost from our children doing something well. What I don’t relate to is feeling the need to say child x scored a million goals, or broke a record or basically “my kid is the best.” When I do post a photo of my children, I prefer to make it about the team or a tough loss etc. That’s just me. The parent I referred to above? They listed about 10 accolades. I almost said something in a comment (I didn’t).
As soon as I finished rolling my eyes, I started to think, am I wrong? Should I praise my kids and announce their accomplishments more? I will never ever be the person who says “watch this amazing segment I did on the news.” It’s not my nature and I think it’s ok. And I do praise my children’s work ethic and hustle, when they’re working and hustling. But I may be better at encouraging my clients than myself or my kids.
I’ve been talking to my kids about nutrition as it applies to sports nutrition. My kids play a ton of soccer and have had their share of injuries. We talk about “fun” topics like inflammation and recovery etc. It’s not easy with two growing teens. who are perpetually ravenous. Last night, one of my sons came to the kitchen. I launched into a little bit of a lecture about what I felt a good food choice would be, at 10pm. And he said, “aren’t nutritionists supposed to make people feel better about what they’re eating?” Ouch.