Jess and I have acquired a practice lately where we ask each other 3 questions at the end of each day. The questions are intended to sum up our day as a whole. And since we work at home, they’re also the perfect way to take a moment to remember specific experiences and emotions we encountered throughout the day – to ensure we remain present with every day and don’t just drift through the daily routine, oblivious to the ebbs and flows we float along in life.

Sometimes I fight it (usually when it’s brought up as I’ve just put my head on the pillow) but even in those instances, after we’ve each given our answers I’m immediately returned to a space of gratitude and excitement for what the next day will bring us.

Those 3 questions are:

• What was a highlight of today?
• What was a moment when you felt connected to me?
• What made you proud today?

The first is something that generally stands out as a specific moment of joy, elation, hilarity or fun. This is almost always tends to be a moment where the pups did something ridiculous. Essentially, what brought on an unexpected smile?

The second is always so meaningful because it allows each of us to revisit the day and think of the moments we spent together. And again, since we work together, there may be a lot of them – but using this as a means to come back to presence and concentrate on each individual occasion, it truly is a sense of realization of the joy and fun we experience together, intertwined with the work we get to do.

I love answering all 3 of these questions. But it’s the third that is often times the most thought-provoking and intriguing to me. Allowing myself the choice to give me a little pat on the back is not something I have ever really done too often – nor is it something I consider to have ever been very easy for me to do. So using this practice to take a sense of pride in my work (and play) and acknowledge the work I do and the focus I bring to the day has been a very eye-opening experience. And for the most, I find that I actually have a pretty quick answer when I’m asked. 

Except over the last few days, it just hasn’t been as easy. I’m positive that it’s not because I haven’t actually done the work. But something in my daily motivation has felt like it’s been missing. Responding to a simple email has felt like the biggest arm-twisting struggle. And I couldn’t figure out why.

Whether it was true or not, I felt like I was roaming in a space of ineptitude and lethargy. 

So the last couple evenings, Jess would ask me what I did that day that made me proud – and I was truly struggling to give an answer. 

WTF – I just lived 2-3 days and I couldn’t come up with anything I was proud of?? Bullshit.

And yesterday afternoon, I took that stance and decided to run with it. Enough was enough, something in my mindset had to change.

I took out my journal and wrote, “I am committed to feeling a sense of pride each and every day. What am I going to do right now to honor that?”

And I just wrote. Some of it didn’t make sense, some of it did. But by freewriting, I came across the realization that those days without the sense of self-satisfaction in what I’d accomplished each had a running narrative…

My morning practice was shit.

I’d started to let myself lazily stumble out of bed, make my coffee and start meandering through meaningless articles of fodder that had no intention of priming myself for the badass that I know I am. 

It took me back to the slower days at the 9-5 office where there wasn’t a lot going on so I’d just find whatever BS to entertain me just to get me through the day. 

That’s not how the best version of me acts anymore. 

So I wrote down I was now going to change how I wake up each morning and made the decision to be committed to that new morning routine. With unwavering promise.

And it’s all because of that third question that Jess and I ask each other every night:

What made you proud today?

Now I’m asking you – What made you proud today?

If you’re struggling like I was to come up with something, then something in your daily practices might need to change. I found that altering the way I began my day was pertinent. We call it priming – getting yourself in the zone to be the person you want to embody for that entire day. For many of you, it may be different. But by priming myself in the morning, I’m able to focus on that best version of me before I do anything else.

It’s incredible how that simple question can alter your mindset and put you in a space of self-evaluation to make sure you embody the true badass that you really are.

I believe in you. Do you?