How many matches do you have today?

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How many matches do you have today?  Did you wake up fully recharged and ready to tackle your day?  Or, was it more of a struggle to get out of bed, a tired that not even caffeine could fix?  Each day is a new day, but not all days are created equal.  Some days we get a great night's sleep and can accomplish all of the things on our to do list with grace and ease.  Other days.... sigh.  We may not even have the energy to truly care about much of anything.  Either way this is perfectly normal.

A very wise man once explained it to me like this - we are all given a set of matches each day to use however we need to.  Some days we have more matches than we need to get through our day and can invest our extra energy into perusing fun and tackling projects. And, on other days, we are handed a matchbook with only a few matches to use.  They may not even be enough to get through everything we need to; but, that's where we are.  Ultimately, we don't really get a say in how many matches we get each day.  We only get to choose where we spend these - where we spend our energy and time.

This week I'm feeling a bit under the weather and dreaming of rainy days made for naps and better views like that in the picture.  So, it's been a bit of a struggle to get through this week's to do list.  I've chosen to accomplish what absolutely must be done and to devote any remaining energy to projects or activities that I find renewing and rewarding.  This week's creative project is March's newsletter for faculty on pedagogy.   It takes me out of my comfort zone and allows me an opportunity to play creatively in a way that I don't normally get to do. And, when I run out of matches, I've been taking time for some self-care. This week that looks like sipping ginger ale and watching some really bad reality tv about life on a yacht.  

So - think about how many matches you have today?  What can you accomplish with them?  What do you want to use them for? And, how will you give yourself some grace on days you don't have the matches to give 100%?











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