Monday

I worked out today (I know, I know. I'll wait for your applause to die down).


Pretty much kicked that gym's butt. And I'm *hardly* even sore. Don't I rock? (Please ignore the dirty dishes, unmade bed, wet towels on the floor and child watching too much tv). 


You know one of the things I LOVE about my job? All day long I get the "real story" behind the veneer. The rest of the world is very well fooled by my clients and how perfect they look. But I get to be a part of their genuine struggles. Not only is this meaningful, but it is a daily reminder that we don't have it all together.


It also reminds me that we ask too much of ourselves in modern society. Somehow, we have the same 24 hours we've always had, but we're supposed to do so much more with it. On a daily basis I am bombarded with messages of "not good enough". For example, right now I ought to be:


-gardening
-having great sex
-spending time with friends
-working out my core
-eating small organic meals 5 times a day
-keeping a clean house
-keeping a clean house with green, nontoxic chemicals
-using reusable grocery bags
-enriching my child's mind with creative, novel projects that last all day 


And don't forget that I must also be: tan while avoiding skin cancer, a sexy mom without being TOO sexy, using social media ALL DAY but not ignoring my child, making a good income without worrying about money...


Yeah, because I have 30 hours a week to do this!
Oh yeah, and did you know that apparently I'm supposed to take up COUPONING now!? Seriously. 


Something has to give. It just has to. It's not possible to do it all.


But here's the good news: everyone else is feeling the same way. Really. I know because they tell me.


So here's my recommendation: how about we celebrate mediocrity and balance a bit more? Why don't we congratulate our fellow friends on living a satisfied, pretty good life? Salute our brethren for just being normal?


Well okay, at least we could just drop the act. No one has it all together. No one. I promise. 





So today, I will celebrate my successes: working out, showering and exfoliating (oh, yeah), writing a  blog. The failures are always going to be present, no matter how hard I try there will be that *one more thing* I ought to have done. So to highlight those failures means to always be feeling failure, because they will always exist. And to me, that's a sad and frustrating way to go through life. So I'm advocating for less of that, more of self-congratulations.


You're doing okay,

2 comments:

  1. At some point, this all is going to get overwhelming that there will be a renewal of the simplicity movement ... I hope.

    I think it's important for all of us to be conscious about what matters to us and to focus our energies on that, instead of trying to get the approval of others or to do what's 'right' or 'cool'. When you start to think of who benefits from convincing us that we 'should' do these things, you realize how much of this has an economic element to it. Hmmm ...

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  2. Steve- Thank you for your comment, and for taking the time to read! I too think that there is a strong economic motivator behind most messages we get. After all, if we're good enough just as we are, we won't need to buy their product! Unfortunately it seems like we haven't figured out how to filter out those messages from our psyche. I sure hope you're right about a simplicity movement. I definitely am READY for that one!

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