Recently, I totally smashed one of my family goals of organising a summer party for the little people in my family.
For too long, I’ve felt like a bit of a failure in the extended-family department.
I used to see my nieces and nephews all the time when they were little, but since they’ve gotten older and had children of their own, I rarely see them.
I know it’s all part of change and all that, but it felt so hollow sending birthday and Christmas presents in the post to little faces I never see and I wanted to change that, so I’ve made a mission to host a family party twice a year where I can get to see them, and the little “once removed cousins” can get to know each other.
(Freshly Googled fun fact: “First cousins once removed” are the children of your cousins, “second cousins” are children of your parents’ cousins. It was always one of those things I wasn’t sure about until today!)
Anyway, I digress…
The weather gods were smiling on us yesterday and I squeaked with excitement when the bouncy castle people turned up with the unicorn-themed inflatable I’d booked a few weeks ago.
I momentarily started calculating the odds of my needing to scrape regurgitated egg sarnies off the bouncy castle by the end of the day, but apart from that, I was filled by nothing but joy at the thought of having a bunch of over-excited preschoolers go wild at our house for the day.
I tried to make the day as stress-free as possible for myself, so I arranged my first “grazing table”. It’s an absolute game-changer if you hate washing up - you basically tape some baking paper to a table for hygiene reasons, then throw all the food on top of it:
That was a complete success apart from the bake-at-home rolls I cremated for an hour and a half.
(Also, I forgot to chop the grapes for the little ones - don’t worry - their parents did that…)
Progress not perfection!
I don’t know if it’s related to my ADHD, but I’ve struggled like mad in the past hosting parties, and since my diagnosis I’ve actively looked for ways to make my life easier.
This simple arrangement - organising an activity for the kids rather than doing party games (a weird kind of torture that paralysed my over-stimulated brain when I did them for my own children’s parties) and throwing some food on the table, turned out to be a winning combo.
And none of it would have happened if I hadn’t looked at my life as a whole at the beginning of this quarter and asked myself the question of what I’d like to improve upon.
Goal setting is so powerful, and the goals you set yourself need to be tailored to your own values, strengths and weaknesses.
If you’re in business, then we’ve created a free audio/ebook called “Rock Solid Growth” to help you get to the next level whilst achieving a good balance in your personal life, too.