I’ve done several interviews lately…and…the question seems to keep coming 
up…what exactly is…Bertha-Sizing…
Honestly…I appreciate the question…it does sound strange…the concept has to do with…acknowledging yourself…appreciating yourself…and…on a really basic level…just giving yourself credit for doing more than taking up oxygen on an overcrowded planet…
In the book…Bertha…has me acknowledge three things that I accomplished during the day…even little bitty things could count…once I’d listed them she said that was great…but that anyone could have made the list for me…my co-workers could have seen me do them…it was a good start…but…not quite enough…her next step…was to write down why each of the accomplishments made me proud…why they were a big deal…and that was something that probably only I knew…
She called it…drum roll please…Bertha-Sizing…kind of like…super-sizing your life…
The cool thing is…the process works…if I am feeling down…like I’m not accomplishing much…like I am behind…I Bertha-Size…make a list…sometimes I write down more than three things…in fact…the more the better…it can really change my perspective in a hurry…
All of this ties in with what…Bertha…is talking to me about today…changing my focus…to what I have accomplished…instead of what I haven’t…even though I know better…it is easy to get bogged down in the to-do list…forgetting the to-done list…
Of course…she goes a step further…bringing up the kids at school…and…grades…mentioning…that even though our grading system is percent right…our focus is actually on the percent wrong…there is no celebration…that little Susie got 50% of the work correct…the focus is on the 50% that she missed…but…what if…she shifted that…what if she looked at the things she got right…and why that made her proud…and celebrated them…could it make a difference…
Bertha…also points out…that if that were her batting average…she’d be pretty psyched…but…that’s a whole ‘nother blog…
Hmmm…I think I’ve started rambling…but…she’s given me something to contemplate…as I go to school for the day…
Jane
