Go Me!

I am so proud of myself right now; I had SUCH a great day! Not to toot my own horn too much, but sometimes getting stuff done is such a struggle. Plus, we just discussed in my Organizational Psych class how important it is to take credit for your successes. According to the research, men typically attribute their achievements to their intrinsic, personal characteristics, while women are less likely to give themselves credit for things they've accomplished. Additionally, men tend to blame extrinsic factors beyond their control for their failures, while women are far more likely to feel responsible for things that go wrong. Obviously people who really believe they deserve credit for their success (and I'm talking believing it inside your head, not bragging to everyone else) would be generally happier, but it turns out that they actually are less stressed, more engaged in their work, and more satisfied by their work. I already feel pretty good right now about my accomplishments today, but in an effort to maintain a stress-free happiness I'm gonna go ahead and revel in it.

It's just that I got so much DONE! Usually I make grand plans for my to-do list but sort of know in the back of my head that most of it won't happen (setting myself up for failure). It starts when I wake up--I have a really tough time getting out of bed before I absolutely have to, no matter how much sleep I got, and that leads to my wasting a frustrating amount of time on days when I don't have class until 1:30. The problem is that there's just so much involved in getting ready to go somewhere that I just don't go. So today, instead, I woke up early, but then I took my time allowing myself to get a slow start. I know every day that I'm eventually going to spend a lot of time reading my e-mail and checking all the sites I read, so I just got that out of the way first. It was fun and not challenging at all; a good way to ease into the day. And then I practiced bass AND guitar, and I didn't even have to brush my teeth or get dressed! I saved leaving my room for when I actually had to be somewhere, and I still managed to get stuff done and feel like I was being productive.

Then, and I thought this was really clever, I wore my sweats TO CLASS. Smart, right? That way I could go straight to the sports center and work out without going back to my room and risking the temptation of the internet or a nap. It was pouring and I got soaking wet and almost decided it was too gross to do anything, and then I thought well I need a shower anyway so I might as well go work out. I ran three miles and I was so proud of myself for actually going that I did it in my best time ever (which I won't share cuz it's embarrassing, but still good for me). So I felt totally awesome, and then I went and worked on my project (due tomorrow) for a little while before dinner because I knew later there would probably be a bunch of noisy annoying girls in the lab. After that I had a built-in break because there was a class in the lab, and since I got stuff done earlier I didn't feel guilty at all about doing nothing during that time. But after the class got out I went right back over and I got my project done at an uncharacteristically early hour (it's not even midnight!) and I just feel SO SO good about my day that I want to keep going. But I won't, I'll go to sleep soon--and that way I can do the same thing again tomorrow. I usually try to avoid emoticons but for real :D