Progress

As we walked along our dirt courtyard my husband responded, it just seems like we are back where we started last year. I wondered what made him feel that way, and yet I knew. Progress is such a powerful emotion. It is so powerful that we have an emotional response both when we make progress and when we don't make progress. We have come a very long way since we started our homestead a little over a year ago, but not being able to make progress on it at this time is emotional. I had this same discussion with my friend who I love and respect very much. We talked about how emotionally difficult it was to feel success with your finances if you are just living paycheck to paycheck even if you are in a better situation than you have been. She had managed to eliminate their credit card debt but was still living paycheck to paycheck, so it didn't feel different even though it was different.

So how do we fight this? How do we feel progress so we can feel the success that comes with progress and the joy that comes with it? I have two ideas. First, we must have gratitude and often. We need to search often for those things that we are grateful and we must than our Father in Heaven for them often.
Second we need to have areas in our lives that we do see progress. Part of the difficulty comes from tasks that we do where progress isn't possible. For example a sink full of dirty dishes comes and goes daily. A pile of laundry might disappear only to reappear in an hours time. For this reason goal setting is not only smart but it is essential to our happiness. We need to set goals for ourselves and work on them. Another dear friend recently announces that she was going back to school. She wasn't sure that it would change very much in her life but she was taking the step nonetheless. However, that is a step towards accomplishment and progress. That step is vitally important to her sense of progress that produces such powerful emotions.  Our goals however don't need to be big (although big is good) small goals can help us feel the same sense of power if we set and accomplish goals. Even though my friend who had paid off her credit cards was struggling there was a sense of progress she was able to feel when they were paid off. Its just hat we have to keep having moments when we win. We need to be always working forward. That is what our Father in Heaven wants. He doesn't want us to stay where we are, he wants us to be moving forward. It is important that in prayer we counsel with our Heavenly Father and ask how we can move forward. Ask for his help in setting our goals. I say this because it is also dangerous ( and way to easy) to do a lot of things that are not important and of little worth, so as we work toward that sense of accomplishment that is so powerful we must also do so carefully. We don't want to get the bigger home if it means in the process we picked up an extra job and now have to miss going to church to pay for it. We need to stretch ourselves and move forward, but we also need to make sure that we do so with wisdom and prudence.