On Small Wins
Like everyone else, life feels really full at the moment. Full doesn’t mean bad or overwhelming. I just feel like my to-do list is ever expanding but not shrinking. Like many, I have built routines over the years that have worked for me. I’m at a place where I’m having to address the routines that don’t work for me anymore. I think that I have always derived a sense of accomplishment, successful adult-ing, if you will, from having these small routines in my life. For me, these routines come about organically as I move through my day to day life. I need something more than “create your list and get things done” like so many of us are counseled to do. So I let my routines be guided by the small wins in my life. I like repeating things that make me feel good.
What do I mean by small wins? We all have our own definition of what constitutes a small win. Here’s what a small win means for me.
Something that has a clearly defined beginning and end point.
Something that makes me feel like I accomplished something.
Sometimes that means setting a timer and seeing how far I can get in one of my never-ending activities - you know the ones - addressing dishes, sorting email, laundry, weeding the garden. These are all activities that really have no end point but need to be addressed regularly otherwise they become daunting behemoths we can’t tackle. My timer comes out, and I spend whatever time I’ve allocated to working on that task.
This week, I wanted something a little different. Over the weekend we had the opportunity to go into a grocery store. We found some of the cutest little pearl onions, so they came home with us. I really enjoy canning and pickling fruits and vegetables. Yes, I know that people hear home canning or pickling and automatically think “huge mess, huge workload”, and while that can be the case, it doesn’t have to be. Doing a small batch doesn’t take a lot of time, and I find it very satisfying. Aside from that, I get to create something useful and have quiet time to myself.
Look at how gorgeous these are! How can I resist doing something with them? So I made some tea, turned on some fun music and set out to do some pickling. We love pickled onions in our house - it’s not for everyone - but I really like the sharpness of these after a heavy meal or something that is super savoury. You can chop them small and eat them with rice, use them as fillings for rice balls, add them to salads, or use them in salad dressings. I also find the process of preparing vegetables for pickling to be centering and calming. I pickle a fair number of things - green papaya, white radishes, and cucumber to name a few. For this sort of quick pickle, I use vinegar. I personally like a fairly sour pickle, and I have a go-to pickling base. None of this requires a lot of thought on my part, and I feel really good at the end. Besides, I get to enjoy a pickle in a couple of days, so it’s like a tiny present from Past Miayah.
Since these pickles get to live in the fridge, and we only have so much space, I tend to make very small batches of pickles. I get to reuse some of the glass jars that I save and peel the labels off of (an annoying process that is also very satisfying). There is something super calming about getting all the vegetables into even sizes. Besides, I think these purple onions are very pretty.
They look so pretty when they’re ready! This time is also very precious to me. My mind wanders because I don’t have to think about what step comes next. It’s an almost mindless process and can think about other things. I’ve been trying to figure out what sorts of creative projects I want to do next, and I have so many ideas. The problem with having so many ideas is that I can’t seem to choose. I’m also finding that while I feel as if I “need” to do certain projects, I really find no joy in them. I still feel obligated to do them, so I don’t feel as if I can do the projects I want to do. The time I spent working on the onions helped me focus on this and actually shift my thought process.
This didn’t take a ton of time, maybe an hour, hour and half. When I was done, I felt accomplished and able to tackle other things in my life. It gave me an outlet to just let some of my concerns wander, and it made some of the voices that tell me that I’m not doing enough quiet down.
Small wins are something I think we all need. It doesn’t matter what they look like as long as they are meaningful to us. I feel more centered, more at peace, and more accomplished. It makes turning on a timer and doing 15 minutes of dishes or a load of laundry that much easier. What is a small win for you today?