I Got Rid of My Countdown
I'm not saying you should too. Get rid of your countdown, I mean. If you have one. But I had to. Here's the thing about deployment countdowns.. they can make you focus so much on how much time is left until that day that you'll be happy he's home, that you might forget how to be happy now.
And time goes slower when you know the exact date. Believe me, it's true. I had a little dashboard widget on my mac. Now it just has a count-up since I last saw him and a countdown to the marathon.
I don't think that counting up is bad. You'll probably see a happy tweet from me when it's been 5 months since I said goodbye to James at the end of R&R. Woohoo! Another month that we've conquered! That's different. When I had the countdown, I looked at it way too often. I got rid of it about half-way through the deployment. I cannot tell you how much "faster" things have gone for me now. And you could argue that maybe it's just because the second half always goes by faster. That could be. But I think my mindset is healthier now. I don't know exactly how much longer is left but I'm going
There's another thing out there called the "donut of misery." Basically it's a little excel document that you can plug the dates into and it will show you how much you have left in a pie-chart (or donut) form.
I think these are kind of fun to show people how far along you are without violating OPSEC. But I don't have it open on my computer and I don't look at it.
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." - Phil 4:11
Day before I said goodbye. At my brother's really cold and windy rugby game. Oh.. those bangs. :/ |
I don't think that counting up is bad. You'll probably see a happy tweet from me when it's been 5 months since I said goodbye to James at the end of R&R. Woohoo! Another month that we've conquered! That's different. When I had the countdown, I looked at it way too often. I got rid of it about half-way through the deployment. I cannot tell you how much "faster" things have gone for me now. And you could argue that maybe it's just because the second half always goes by faster. That could be. But I think my mindset is healthier now. I don't know exactly how much longer is left but I'm going
There's another thing out there called the "donut of misery." Basically it's a little excel document that you can plug the dates into and it will show you how much you have left in a pie-chart (or donut) form.
I think these are kind of fun to show people how far along you are without violating OPSEC. But I don't have it open on my computer and I don't look at it.
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." - Phil 4:11
I know I've talked about contentment before. That's a constant struggle for us military wives isn't it? I think that the whole countdown thing isn't helping.
Now that I'm getting closer, it's actually kind of hard to not know in the my mind approximately how many days are left. People keep asking me. I kind of have to know for planning on such. But that really isn't so much the point I guess. It's the mindset. For now, I'm only counting down to my marathon. Because that's my next adventure. And when he comes home, it will be amazing. But it won't be until after my marathon, so for now, I don't need to know exactly how much longer it's gonna be. :)
<3 A.
Note: There's a lot of purple in this post. I swear I didn't do it on purpose.
I love all the purple in the post ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd great message!
Thanks Alli! :)
ReplyDeleteI definitely rocked a "count up." It made me feel good to see how many days I made it through. (Just like how you celebrate each month you finish!) I used my candy countdown. I think you are so smart to have a visual countdown without the exact numbers. You can drive yourself crazy that way.*
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