I look back at the goals, hopes, dreams, and expectations I entered the year with six months ago. Somehow I’ve kind of kept holding on, and at the same time I know I’ve also started to allow myself to start to slip backward. And not just in my health and weight, but in several areas across the board. Not a complete fall off the bandwagon, but a slow but steady veering off to the left.
I’ve allowed myself to coast just a little, cheat just a little, listen to the whispers of unworthiness just a little more, while requiring myself to care and count and track just a little less. I’ve allowed my drive and my passion to start to wain and let myself slide ever so slightly in the wake of unexpected change and prescheduled chaos.
I'm still allowing myself to buy in to the unrealistic reality of unattainable perfection, while also navigating the lapping waters of unexpected change. Perfectionism and change - two things that can single handedly bring us to our knees, bring us right back to square one time and time again.
It is exhausting trying to be perfect all the time isn't it? None of us are "required" to be perfect, none of us ever can or will be perfect. And yet, here it is, this illusion of "perfection" left lying in our outstretched hand, this standard we hold out and dangle in front of us every single day, every single hour of our lives. Always in sight and always just outside of our reach.
Why is it we place perfection on such a high pedestal? Why is it so hard to accept that we are perfectly imperfect and that is exactly how we were made, how we were intended? It is in our trials and imperfections that we are challenged, that we grow, that we find that fight and strength needed from deep within us.
And then there's change. Funny how we rarely actually schedule and plan for changes in our lives, and yet they are always arriving, always popping up unexpectedly. Doors opening, door closing, unexpected plans and realities, diagnosis and emergencies.
Life. What a tricky thing to navigate. What a roller coaster ride to endure day in and day out. The delicate balance living all in, all out, while juggling expectations, reality, and meet-in-the-middle compromises on the fly. Every day is new, every day is different, every day is unknown and try as we might to control, every day is filled with things we didn't have penciled, typed, or sharpied into our day planners.
We flip the calendar today. July. Whether you look at the year as half done, half lost, half gone, or as having another six months yet to conquer, to achieve, to accomplish - the truth of the matter is that 163 days are behind us and 162 days are still before us. This is a black and white fact. The black and white truth of the matter. Time is marching away from us to the beat of it's own drum at a rate no one can keep up with any longer.
Today is a day to take the time to slow, to stop, and to take stock in our days and moments thus far this year. Today we need to allow ourselves the time to re-evaluate, to re-align, to re-establish. Today is the day to turn around if we must, get ourselves set back straight on our course and figure out how to just keep going. Keep going forward, keep looking towards tomorrow, continue on with determination and intentionality... even when we think we just don't have the stamina, the wherewithal, the ability to fit one more thing in, or take one more step forward.
Oh such wise words and principles these are that I type, words and actions I need to do in my very own life. It’s time to wipe the dust off, clear the webs out, suck it up buttercup, shove out the bits of negatively that have crept back in, confront again all that’s holding us back, tripping us up, guiding us off course.
Today I look at what I’ve tackled and what I’ve yet to take on. Today it’s time to pick ourselves back up and give ourselves the pep talk we need to re-tweak those goals and ambitions and get back at it with all we have in us.
And I'm not talking about just fitness and health goals here. Not just the number on the scale, the number inside your jeans, the number of miles on your running app, the number of pounds on your weights, or the number of minutes on your exercise video. I'm also talking about the goals and ambitions we have set for ourselves in the areas of our families and friends, in our spiritual growth and development, in our ability to grant ourselves rest and healing and soulcare, in not allowing ourselves to numb and continue on skirting through life on autopilot. Health and fitness, yes absolutely weave magically throughout all of those areas, but I've learned that it does in fact need to be woven into, incorporated throughout, bringing in and binding together separates into a strong and beautiful wholeness. Life is a joint venture of needs, wants, dreams, goals, wishes, and expectations that all need to be delicately braided together.
Let's breathe deep and take stock in the accomplishments, the good, the whoop-whoop's of the first six months of this year. Let's evaluate, but not dwell too long on the areas fallen short. Let's be real with ourselves, be honest, and then we need to somehow pick ourselves up and continue on. Move forward. Don't just jump ship and throw it all away if you aren't quite where you thought, hoped, expected to be today. Look at all that you have done, hang on desperately to that, and look ahead and let's march ourselves boldly into the next six months remaining of this fantastic year.
The year is half over. But that leaves another half a year still for the taking and making, for the holding and folding, for the dream setting and the goal smashing. Are you a glass half empty or glass half full type person? Cuz today my friends, is merely a day of glass half empty, there's still a whole lot of days, weeks, months left to continue to find and polish our greatness and our strengths. Let's flip those calendars and keep on a going.
{ Previous Blog Post "Touch of Heaviness" HERE }
{ Next Blog Post "Taking a Personal Day" HERE }
No comments:
Post a Comment