One of my favorite authors, Christina Katz, posts a blog about writing. This week she discussed what it means to be enterprising in our careers and encouraged readers to blog about what the word 'enterprising' means to us. To that end, I'm creating this special entry to the blog about being an enterprising family.
For me, the word enterprising denotes being ACTIVE. It means seeking new information to make what we are doing even better. It means going above and beyond the minimum required of us to really shine at what we are doing. It means creativity at its best...thinking about our problems and solutions in a different way, communicating in new and different ways, and considering life from a new perspective. Enterprising means hard work, but also fruitful labor.
Whew! Sounds like a lot, now that I've typed it all. Since my area of expertise is the family, let's connect all those ideas back to our families.
Earlier this week I posted about the different ways families can be normal. So often we trudge along our normal life as if on a rail. We don't deviate from doing things the way we always have (and perhaps the way our family has done things for generations!).
If we decide to be enterprising in our family, we can do several fun and exciting things. We can seek new knowledge about families by reading books, magazines, and blogs. We can implement new rituals. These serve important family functions and are so fun. For instance, Valentine's Day is coming up. Do you have a special ritual for celebrating this with your children or spouse? If not, create something fun - make heart shaped pancakes for dinner or build a chocolate truffle tower!
Being enterprising also means solving problems in a new way. So often, we rely on those old patterns for problem solving. Next time a problem pops up...be enterprising! Go to the library and find some books that may help you. Ask different people than usual for their counsel. It doesn't mean you have to DO what they say, but they will provide you with a new way to look at things.
Bottom line...to be enterprising in our family is to get out of our ruts and be proactive.
Leave some comments telling me how YOU are being enterprising in your family!
All the best~
Andrea
Andrea, I love this one! So often, we work on improving our spiritual self, work self, and even our marriage, but we seldom look to improve our family unit. What a fun challenge! Jackie
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you like the challenge! Someone once commented to me that we are often nicer to the checkout lady at the grocery store than our loved ones. That's so sad. I'm glad the blog is helpful!
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