So what does One Good Thing have to do with voiceover, anyway?

Everything!

This project is all about changing my mindset. My default seems to run more towards the negative, but if I’m going to have a successful business that needs to change! And how do you change? Habit. Repetition. Training.

So I’m training myself to come up with one good thing every day. And right now I’m only posting about it weekly, but hopefully, this will eventually become something that I do daily.

Day 22 (Dec 20): Today I watched A Christmas Dance Reunion with Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman. Yes, it really was good enough to make this list! It gave me so many warm fuzzies and left me smiling and so happy!

Day 23 (Dec 21): Our heat went out today. One might think, “Mandi, that’s not a good thing” – but hear me out. What’s good about it is that we are fortunate enough that we were able to call someone to come fix it. And the weather is relatively mild so it’s okay that we’ve got no heat right now. We are truly fortunate.

Day 24 (Dec 22): Sara Ramirez on the SATC reboot. Really, that’s what made my day today. They are AMAZING.

Day 25 (Dec 23): Today was COOKIE DAY! I made Christmas cookies and they were DELICIOUS.

Day 26 (Dec 24): IT’S CHRISTMAS EVE! And I got to go spend the day with my family at my Grandma’s. This was the first day in two years I’d been able to do this. It was so wonderful!

Day 27 (Dec 25): It’s Christmas Day! Everything about this day was wonderful! Good food, family, lots of love.

Day 28 (Dec 26): Today may be Sunday, but I still don’t have to go back to my day job tomorrow. That’s totally a win!

December is an amazing month, and some days it’s hard to choose just ONE good thing – but that’s what this project is all about. So here we go – week three of finding one good thing each day.

Day 15 (Dec 13): At my day job today, we all shared photos of our favorite Christmas memories. It was so lovely to see glimpses into everyone’s lives.

Day 16 (Dec 14): Today I had breakfast with my mom, my Granny, my Granny’s husband, and my husband. It was so wonderful! I do not get to see them nearly enough, so any chance we get to hang out makes for a wonderful day!

Day 17 (Dec 15): I started seeing a therapist today. Mental health matters are still full of negative stigmas, and I want to do my part to change that. There’s nothing wrong with me and there’s nothing shameful about needing therapy. The really great thing about this is that I really felt like I clicked with the therapist – I left the session feeling hopeful, not discouraged.

Day 18 (Dec 16): My husband couldn’t help himself and shared one of my Stocking Stuffers with me – a cute snowman nightlight. I absolutely love how excited he gets about gifts and he can almost never wait until Christmas or my birthday to share them with me.

Day 19 (Dec 17): Today was my last day of work at my day job for 2021! A nice long Christmas break is just what I need!

Day 20 (Dec 18): Today I got to participate in the annual Voiceover Christmas Carol reading that my VO coaches do every year. This year, we read an Apple Airpods commercial in the style of the classic – and it was insanely fun and hilarious!

Day 21 (Dec 19): As silly as this sounds – today was basically a second Saturday! Everything about that is GOOD!

Okay, I clearly cannot remember to do this on a daily basis. So… I’ll post them on a weekly basis. I think it’s important for me to take the time to find at least one good thing every day, but that doesn’t mean I literally have to post them each day.

This project is interesting because it’s helping me remember that the mundane can be good and bring me joy. The “good stuff” doesn’t have to be amazingly wonderful – and there are so many things each day that ARE good!

Day 8 (Dec 6): My TSA Precheck got updated with my married name today! It’s been over a year since I got married, but I wasn’t flying during COVID. Now that traveling is back on the table, it’s definitely time to get my TSA Precheck back!

Day 9 (Dec 7): New content dropped on our favorite video game and my husband and I completely lost track of time tonight playing. I may have forgotten about my weekly Grey’s Anatomy live tweet because of it! One minute it was 7PM and the next it was 9:30! But we had a lot of fun working through the new puzzles.

Day 10 (Dec 8): My 2022 planner came in the mail! I need something to help me stay on top of my goals and productivity next year, and I think the Maker’s Yearbook is just the ticket!

Day 11 (Dec 9): The first two episodes of the Sex and the City reboot dropped today. It seems silly, but it made me very happy to see those characters on my screen again! Even if I did end up crying ugly tears…

Day 12 (Dec 10): My husband and I decided today that we’re taking off two full weeks from our day jobs for Christmas. That means I only have 5 more working days in 2021 (day job working, that is).

Day 13 (Dec 11): Today I bought my first pizza stone! This is a game-changer for me in the kitchen!

Day 14 (Dec 12): We went and had lunch with my dad, stepmom, and brother today. I only see them a few times a year, even though it’s only about an hour and a half drive. I love these visits!

Day 5 (Dec 3): I’ve got two for today – it was my Dad’s birthday! Every new year I get with my loved ones is an AMAZINGLY good thing! The other thing is that I finally got my COVID booster shot!

Day 6 (Dec 4): My husband and I went and got cake slices from the Mad Hatter bakery that were the same as our wedding cake. It was one of our best decisions to pick their house specialty as our cake because we can basically have our wedding cake whenever we want!

Day 7 (Dec 5): I was feeling pretty puny after the booster, and my husband took care of me today. I mentioned I was hungry, and the next thing I knew he was presenting me with a plate full of food! He’s definitely a keeper.

I may be behind, but I’m committed to finding one good thing every day – even if I get it posted later. It’s important to me that I continue to remind myself of the good things in life.

Day 3 (Dec 1st): It’s December! That’s AMAZING! I love December because I love Christmas. It’s the time of year to enjoy beautiful lights and decorations and bask in the light of your Christmas tree (even though mine was not yet up on this day). It’s also a time to begin reflecting on the previous year and setting goals for next year.

Day 4 (Dec 2nd): Today was my Granny’s 85th birthday! I am so very thankful that her life has been long and relatively healthy. I don’t see her nearly as often as I should, but I’m very excited that this year we’ll be together again for Christmas.

It hasn’t been a great day, to be honest. I’ve felt under the weather all day – but there’s no such thing as a 100% bad day.

Today, I got to see my mama. I rarely get to see her unexpectedly, and while it was only for a few minutes… It did my heart a world of good.

Well, this is embarrassing.

I started the year writing blog posts about how gung ho I was about getting started and being consistent, and then… nothing.

Okay, not nothing exactly – just nothing here on the blog.

Whoops.

It’s been a year of growth and learning and progress – I just didn’t document any of it.

But today, on my 39th birthday, I heard Marc Scott talk about his One Good Thing project. It was really quite serendipitous. I listen to the VOpreneur podcast when I’m in the car. I don’t listen to the episodes in order, I generally just pick and choose based on the topic and whatever mood I’m in. This morning, I picked episode 49 – The Episode That Will Change Your Life. In that episode from 2019, Marc relayed a story about how in 2011 he committed to writing down one good thing every day for a year. It could be anything – a great meal, a funny joke, booking an amazing job, etc. But every day, he had to write down one good thing that happened that day before he went to bed. I was intrigued by the idea; I definitely tend to skew towards the negative, and this is a great way to reprogram the brain to accentuate the positive.

But then, I sat down to go through my next module of the Voiceover Marketing Playbook – Mindset Matters. In that module, Marc once again told the story about the One Good Thing project he did.

The universe is trying to tell me something.

So I’m not going to ignore it. Today is my birthday and that seems like the perfect day to kick off a year-long project.

So here’s today’s one good thing: It’s my birthday! And I am loved. So maybe that’s two things, but they both made my day pretty spectacular. Here’s to my 40th year and achieving my dreams!