Episode 38: Before You Start a New Season, Make a Ta-Da List
- Tina Boogren
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
Description: It's easy to close out a busy season and immediately start thinking about what's next. But before you move into summer, this week's invitation is to pause and spend time celebrating accomplishments, big and small, from the season you just completed. A ta-da list is a simple, joyful way to do exactly that.
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Transcription: Hi, and welcome to Everyday Wellness with Dr. Tina H. Boogren. I am your host, Tina Boogren, and I'm so happy you are here. This is a special episode, if you will. It's episode 38, and what that means is this is the final episode of this season. Do not worry, I am coming back. But in modeling, oh, how I take care of myself to the best of my abilities, what I know is that I need to take a break from the podcast in the summer because, as I've mentioned, I know on the last episode and before, summer is my absolute busiest time.
As a consultant who works with schools, there's a lot of training that takes place in the summer, and so starting in June all the way through basically September is when my travel is the craziest. And the older I get, the harder the travel is. And so I've had to put some real firm boundaries around ways that I can take care of myself through the summer season, because this season matters so much to me. It's when I get to do work that I love with people that I love all over, but it's just hard. And so one of the things that I have done the past few years is just allow myself to take a little break from the podcast. I also want Adrienne to take a little break from the podcast as well.
Now, we have been talking. We've got some ideas of some ways that we can stay connected this summer, because I realize that many of our listeners, yay, are not, uh, have a job where they have, like, a big chunk of time off in the summer. So we plan to stay connected with you. We're working through ways to do that, so please know that I won't just abandon you. I will absolutely still be over in the Facebook group posing questions, staying connected that way. So please know that I'm not going anywhere, I'm just, whoop, hitting the pause button.
Now, that is not an invitation, well, maybe it is an invitation for you. In fact, I'm thinking about where might you be able to hit the pause button. But really, what I want the invitation to present to you this week is I want you to pause, and I want you to start making a ta-da list.
Many of my listeners will recognize this is something that we've talked about in the past, but it's one of my favorite things and I want us to pause and do this. So I'm bringing this invitation back. So for my educators, as you start closing up the school year, one of the things that I really want you to consider doing, whether it's just by yourself or with your teammates or with your students, is to create a ta-da list. As in ta-da, look at all the great things that we did this year. It is such a nice way to reflect on the year because, again, primacy recency effect, we tend to remember the beginning and the end of things, so your brain might get stuck in just these last couple of weeks. And so by pausing and really going back, looking through your lesson plan book, looking through your calendar, look through the whole school year and list all the things that you accomplished this year.
Now, if you are not an educator, you can still do this. We can do ta-da lists at any time. They're so fun to do. Maybe you think about it of seasons, right? So as we are moving into summer, create your spring ta-da list or you could do it by month, your May ta-da list. You could do it as a family. You can do it completely by yourself. You can start a note in your phone. You can do it in your journal. You could do it out loud where you're sitting around with your friends, and what a great conversation starter. Maybe you move around the circle and each person just shares one thing they're really proud of in the last month or the last few months or the last year or the last six months. It doesn't matter. But I just think sometimes we get moving at a really, really fast pace, and we never stop to consider the pause and finding the positives.
Our brain really likes to point out things that didn't go as planned, or that we didn't get finished, or that, you know, still continue to be on the to-do list, and we don't as easily find those ta-das and those celebrations. For many of us, our brain just is not huh, helpful in that way. But I want us to resist that natural tendency to, A, either not pause and reflect or to, B, just think about the negatives, and instead spend some quality time really thinking about the positives.
Maybe you do a little bit each day. Maybe this is part of your morning routine or what a great thing to do right before you go to bed. You just add a couple things to your list, whether that is, again, in your journal or on a sticky note, on your phone. Be careful of that right before you go to bed. But I want you to spend this week just really celebrating. Celebrating yourself, celebrating your family, celebrating your job, celebrating things in your personal life with your friends. Just start that ta-da list. It's so fun to do. First of all, I love to say ta-da, and a ta-da list feels and is very different than a to-do list, and I want you to be conscious of that as you are working on your list.
As I was sitting here talking about this and thinking about this, I'm wondering if I can incorporate a little bit of artwork into this. Even if you just, for me, my art is still pretty primal, if you will. It's beginner's level, but I'm like, oh, I could picture myself putting my ta-da list on some nice paper and then just decorating it, and making it more of a kind of feel like a finished project that I could perhaps hang up next to my desk, or just a keepsake that I could have in some way. Again, everyone's gonna take this and make it work for them. That's what I love about, I hope, these invitations of like, here's an idea. What could I do with this? How can I make this work for me? With whatever situation that you have, depending on your job, your family, your time, all of it.
So that's really, I just want you to celebrate this week. I want you to really pause and consider all of the amazing things that you are doing on a daily basis that you sometimes don't even realize. There is nothing too small here. And again, if you jump on over to the Facebook group, I'm gonna have prompts associated with this. It's so fun to read each other's and be reminded to keep doing this all week. And also recognize that I'm just so grateful as we put a bow on this season of the podcast. I just am so incredibly grateful for all of you. This was a big season where we kind of transitioned from Self-Care for Educators to Everyday Wellness, and we really were purposeful in widening our circle, and that has really meant a lot to me, and I thank you for going on that journey with me and inviting others to join us. The more people that we can pull into our squad, uh, the better. I'm just grateful for all of you.
I'm so incredibly grateful. You have no idea the amount of work that Adrienne does behind the scenes to make sure that this is done well, and it looks great, and we've got an amazing website. Go check it out if you haven't already, tinabogren.com. I'm just so grateful for all of the ways that she supports me and supports all of you. Grateful to Marzano Resources and Solution Tree, and of course to you, this badass Everyday Wellness squad. As I sign off for this season, know that this is not, this is not a permanent goodbye by any stretch. Know that we will continue to touch base in various ways this summer, and that I'll be over in that Facebook group as always. And then we will be back around Labor Day to start our next season, which I can't wait. I absolutely cannot wait. You know, Adrienne and I are always thinking about things that we can do to help this appeal to you even more so and be as helpful as it possibly can. So we're excited to think through some new ideas perhaps as we start a new season. But in the meantime, I'm ending with gratitude, sincere gratitude, hugging each and every one of you and saying thank you for being on this journey, and make it a great week. Make it a great summer. I love you.
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