We want to help you in your self-care practice, and to keep reminding you that this is important. Keep remembering to take care of yourself, and to keep doing the best you can. We’re here for you.

You know how hard it can be to notice the positive things going on around you. Ten people come to the desk and things are perfectly fine – even great. Then that one person comes who has a tantrum, refused to wear a mask, or is otherwise just awful to be around. And the next hour, or even the rest of the day, is just ruined.

Bleh.

Customer service jobs are hard; there is no way around that. It is hard to spend all day, every day working to be helpful to people – and not all of them are helpful in return.

We can’t help you to make everything positive and good – sorry. (We definitely would if it was possible!)

But just for this week, try something. Focus on one positive thing that happened every day. Spending time being deliberate in looking for that one good thing every day helps you to notice the good things that are going on around you. You can spend time noticing at all the nice things, while you look for the ONE really good thing – the best thing.

And it doesn’t have to be complex. Self-care should always be easy for you. Maybe you printed something on an iffy printer – and it worked right the first time. Maybe you notice you shirt is just exactly the color of the cover of a wonderful book. Maybe someone who is rarely seen in the library sticks their head in to just say hello. Maybe your ILL book came in. Maybe someone else’s book came in, and they were so excited to check it out. Maybe it was a lousy day, but you got to leave and go home and things were so nice there.

It doesn’t matter what the one positive thing is – just look around for it. Then write it down. A few weeks ago we talked about doing some low-key journaling. Writing down your one positive thing would be a good way to do some short journaling. After a while, you have a bunch of good things all collected in one place. And maybe that becomes your one positive thing on a tough day!