I am not in the Navy, but my husband is, and no matter how hard he tries, a little Navy creeps into our home life every now and then.
Recently, Mike has been writing up performance reviews, recommendations and the like for work. He doesn't mind it and mentioned it to me recently. That is why I was not surprised to find "Navy and Marine Corps Performance Writing Guide" on his dresser. I was interested in finding out what was in that book. A bunch of grammar? Formatting? I cracked it open. General rules... write in third person, don't use the usual abbreviations, but write them out, examples of letters. Seems like the usual stuff. Oh, lists of words one should use, lots of action words and adjectives to describe personality, humane qualities, and speaking and writing abilities. Ok, gotcha, make things easy for the guys writing, pick a few words, that describe Smith, and get on with your day.
Then, I found it, the bullet point phrases. At first they seemed silly, "Can do enthusiasm," "even tempered," "elegant manner?" So Navy! hahaha
But then I read on... "composed, not easily excited under stress or pressure," "instills motivation in others with relative ease," "proficient and industrious in performance of duty."
WOW! What I wouldn't give to have those said about me! I got to thinking about the funk I've been in since the start of summer... sleeping in, letting Rylee watch TV most of the day, wanting to be entertained, not work. Blah, what a terrible review I would get!
I was inspired! I want to be better. I decided to chose a phrase, post it on the refrigerator and be it! I would embody the value I posted until it was natural, then chose a new one.
OH, BOY! I chose "maintains an atmosphere of pride and accomplishment." Should be easy, right. I'm always praising Rylee for a job well done and I think I let Mike know that I am proud of him. Enter: potty training!!!! Pride and accomplishment. Pride and accomplishment. "Okay Rylee today we are going to wear big girl underwear!" She somehow managed to stay dry for an hour while I got us ready for the gym. She has to wear a diaper to the gym, so she's off the hook for that part. Pride and accomplishment - she stayed dry a whole hour! Mike got home and I got to tell him the great news! Then, back in underwear, Rylee got really quiet and I found her in a puddle of pee! Pride and accomplishment. Pride and accomplishment! This is okay, let's try again, you stayed dry for one hour this morning. Another pee puddle. I feel the frustration bubbling up yet again. Back to diapers. How can I maintain an atmosphere of pride and accomplishment if I'm not proud or accomplishing anything?
I am still inspired by the sterling phrases from the "writing guide." Sometimes we all need to be inspired. Maybe a list of guidelines and goals is not for you, but at times I find it comforting to have a direction to follow, to know there is something higher than my day to day sweatpants level of achievement to strive towards. I crave the reaching forward and upward that lets me know there is more to life than PB&J's and cleaning pee-pee puddles; that what I am doing now will affect my future after preschoolers and potty training. I wondered, though, should the Navy be setting my aspirations? As a Christian, shouldn't the Bible be setting my standards? Wouldn't it be easy to have a "Bible Performance Guide" with bullet points that I can post on my fridge? Then I got to thinking... (to be continued)
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