Professional Improver 101

Welcome! I've created this post to support a class that I taught. It's so cool that I can just direct the women from the class to this site and provide links to everything that I referenced! So I'm going to embed the links into words here (it's not as painful as it sounds, but go ahead and be impressed that I can do it. It's really the cutting edge of technology, in my world.). Click on the colored words and they will take you to all of the places that you need to go on your journey to becoming a professional improver. "Always improving" is a wonderful mantra!

Firstly, you should read about this idea. I labelled my blog "Professional SAHM" because that's where I am in life, but it can apply much more broadly, hence the title of "Professional Improver 101". Read up on my original concept if you're in the dark.

Now that you understand the concept, you need to write down your professions. I like this "Goal Chart with Details" from Chartjungle. Check it out, and if you like it, I recommend printing out 12 so that you can plan out a full year. Then hole punch them and put them into a binder or a duotang (that's just a great word so I had to work it in because, really, now that I'm done elementary school, when do I ever have good cause to use it?). Keep your professional goals somewhere handy so that you can focus on improving.

Finally, don't get discouraged. Click here and here to go to the lectures that I based my comments on. Most of my professions are thrown together as I work on them. I'm not very accomplished at setting specific goals and keeping on track (that would be called self-discipline. . . say wha'???) but this program still has value because it keeps me improving. Some months all I do is read at the end of the month what my profession was (Oh, YAAAAaaaaaaa. . . ) and then reflect on what I did that month and record my accomplishments in the area. The value is that I'm recognizing where and how I succeeded rather than focusing all of my mental effort on where I failed. I avoid becoming discouraged. BTW, if you could earn a gold medal in negative thinking; you're THAT good, a real live method to overcome it is to wear an elastic on your wrist (well, OBVIOUSLY not a tight elastic that will cut off the circulation to your hand and then it will have to be amputated - like I didn't listen to my mom, too!) and the psychologists actually instruct that you should snap it every time you have a negative thought. And once you snap, you stop being negative and replace it with a positive thought. Not that I've ever tried that, but it'd be amusing to watch someone use that method.... But my point is that it's important to be positive, and that your mind is powerful. Maybe this month you could be a professional optimist.

“One of the most difficult challenges is to avoid wasting time, to stay focused and stay on course.”

—Donald L. Staheli

“Always improving.”

— Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

A thousand words

I realized mid month that I had designated August to be a professional photographer, so even though I was doing what I always do (taking lots of pictures), I don't usually show them off too much. So it was super fun to go through the pics from August and pick my favorites. Enjoy!

Kay, the sun wouldn't co-operate; this picture looks so great with the sun shining, but we never had the sun shine when the children were smiling. . . but my fave thing is that DH is standing in a hole in the sand so that his head would be closer to the rest of us. Haha.

The Daddinator. Love that the cabin is in the background.

They are like a sand gang.

My youngest brother and his beautiful family with an applied action from The Coffeeshop (link at side of blog).

Ahhhhhhh! Such a great summer pic! My parents rented a boat for the Aug. long weekend and everyone had so much fun.

This picture captures summer at the lake: reading on the pier, the cottage, enjoying the water, bare feet, blue sky. . . love it.

K. In the grass.

Enroute to the next zip line. I mean, how cool is she?

We visited a Hutterite colony near Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Here S is walking with her second cousins, while the picture of DH is with some of his first cousins, whom he had never met.

This is what E tells us happens to him everyday at school, except there is usually also lava and cliffs.

This picture was fun because my camera had almost no batteries so I would turn it on, quickly shoot a picture and then turn it off. I think it's a pretty fun picture for not having looked as I was taking it.

They are outstanding in their field. I know that their outfits are insane but they had just picked out new t-shirts in Drumheller and we were heading back home after a weeks holiday so they were out of clean clothes. This is actually 2 pictures combined. One of just the background, then the one with the kids against the same background. But the childrenless background had so much more color that I had to combine them. I think it's pretty smooth except for some ghosting around the twins' heads. I'm still excited that DH agreed to stop the car so that I could do a little photo shoot in the prairies.