I love the idea of using slips of paper and a bowl. Sure wish I thought of that when I was in the same boat.
Somebody had posted here recently about not fighting those types of feelings. What bothers us is how we feel about what we're going through. If we let go we'll come out of the funk faster.
Trying to force our way out of those funks seems fruitless at times. We don't go from 0 to 100 no matter our best efforts, so we still feel disappointed. We fail to appreciate the small advancements or even recognize them.
If we can see and appreciate even the smallest improvements, we can stack them together to make a bigger one. It's easier to look back over a few days and add up the small steps we've made and feel proud of them if our expectations aren't too high.
I'm really good at failure. I've spent much of my life falling short of goals and expectations I set for myself. I'd have a vision of how I think things should be and I was always falling short. Just take baby steps. The goal is to put yourself in a position where you will not be disappointed with yourself when the day is over. Set yourself up so that you'll wake up tomorrow without feeling like the previous day was a failure or a waste.
Setting really small and easy to achieve goals is the way to go. As you start accomplishing those tiny goals, you are rebuilding your confidence and reward system. Every day you live falling short of goals makes you feel worthless.
During my early days, I had followed advice I read about setting small goals like that and made a to-do list which I would review during the day. At the end of the day, I'd look over my list and recognize all that I had done.
My list looked a little like: - get out of bed. - shower - brush teeth - get dressed - take vitamins - eat breakfast, lunch, dinner - read and post on SR - read something online about addiction or recovery - drink water (listed a few times for the day) - listen to a self guided meditation video on YouTube. - call somebody. Anybody. If they didn't answer, I still checked it off as complete. - journal
It wasn't long before my list became BIG things like clean or go for a walk. Start small and work your way up is my suggestion.
I love the idea of putting small tasks on slips of paper into a bowl. Save the ones you complete in another bowl so you can see your accomplishments. I had read a cool idea before about using post it notes in the same way. The things to do can be at your desk or fridge. When a "task" is completed, it's moved to your bedroom mirror or dresser. This way you can see what you did at the end of the day and first thing in the morning.
And take your diet very seriously. Drinking water, taking your vitamins, stay away from processed foods and sugars. Eating 5 small meals that include fruits, nuts, veggies, lean meats does a whole lot of good as that keeps your glucose level even throughout the day.