I recently heard another amazing acronym… I know, I just brought you HALT (Check out this blog post) and now another one? Well this one is also super important and something that I feel that too many of us do not make a priority! It is RAC!
RAC: Recognize. Acknowledge. Celebrate!
How often do we go through the day and only look at the things that we didn’t do well… or the things that have stayed the same… well, it is time to change that up and celebrate the little victories each and every day!
When we only look for the big shifts and changes, we often times miss the little wins that surround us each day!
This applies to so many areas in our life, our health, our physical abilities, our diet changes. EVERYTHING!
Let’s say that you had a really good day with the kids! You stayed calm, you had a fun activity planned, you kept them alive but at the end of the day, they are over tired and everyone, including yourself, is fussy. Well, what do you think about after you get them down?
For most of us, we focus on how crappy the day ended but in all reality, it was an AMAZING DAY!
What I want you to try is at the end of the day, think of one of those components and recognize it for the success that it is.
You then acknowledge that you did this! You were responsible for this action today and it felt good doing it!
And then to celebrate! This can look many different ways, but I want to make sure you know it should be a healthy celebration! Some things that I like to do to celebrate include doing a little dance, giving myself a compliment, or taking a deep breath. I may occasionally celebrate with a small dietary treat, but since I am doing this daily, and sometimes multiple times a day, I do not want to tie food to my celebrations.
We also need to do this when you take control of your health and are making better life decisions around food and drink consumption! These changes deserve to be RECOGNIZED, ACKNOWLEDGED AND CELEBRATED as this is how we continue to make progress!
I have also had to RAC with patients in the office. It amazes me how quickly people completely forget how bad they felt before starting chiropractic care and how they now feel so much better.
An example of this is a patient that came in last week. She is a wellness patient who comes in about every 2 weeks. Well, prior to her previous adjustment she started to get headaches every other day. I asked her how things were going with her headaches and at what frequency she was getting them. She had to stop and think about it then said that she didn’t think she had had a single headache in the last two weeks! WHAT?!?! No headaches in the last two weeks when you were getting a headache every other day that required medication due to severity!! And now none! That is huge! And she didn’t even see this! She was just able to do the things that she wanted without headaches holding her back. So, we recognized this improvement, acknowledged that life had been easier without them and then we did a little celebratory thumbs up (since hugs and high fives are not acceptable…)
So what am I RACing today?
The fact that I have showed up here with you all every week since the beginning of 2020! Every week you have gotten some sort of content from me! I am sure some weeks it has been more valuable than others, but the big thing is that no matter what, I have continued to show up even on weeks that I didn’t feel like it and I am so proud of myself!
So, what can you recognize in your life that you have been doing well lately?
LET US ACKNOWLEDGE THAT AND CELEBRATE IT!