(This was written a long time ago and for whatever reason just sat on the side. I did not go to a funeral yesterday but the sentiment is still very much the same.)
I want to talk a little bit about this concept of being better than yesterday. This kind of hit me when I was listening to the book Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton. It's got me to go back and look at her blog from years ago, which I used to follow, but I don't remember. Anyway, she talked a little bit about this concept of better than yesterday and being better than yesterday and this sort of push, this push to be like your best and always be better than you've been before, and do your best, and all of this stuff. It got me thinking. I've decided to make an official call on BS (my mom's watching so that's why I'm not going to swear) on better than yesterday. Because here's the thing, yesterday for me, for example, I was in a dress, I had tights on, I had some sort of tight thing happening to hold it all together, I had a really pretty necklace, I had makeup on. I was put together, right?
Today, I'm wearing a baseball cap and I don't have big plans for showering. Although, I hope to do that, but if it doesn't happen, cool. I'm not really going to be better than yesterday, at least in this regard, right? There are some days that I'm totally on point. I'm firing at all cylinders. I'm like 5:30 in the morning I wake up, and then I do my meditation, and I drink my water with a little lemon slice, maybe it's even warm and I get my workout in, and then my kids get up, and then I go to work, and I'm like, "Pshew," and I do everything I'm supposed to do at work. It's just awesome and I'm checking things off my list. Maybe I have a call with one of my friends, so it's like all sorts of connection. My husband and I find our favorite show and we watch our show, and I look back and I'm like, "Yes, that was the perfect day. That was awesome. Tomorrow I will do the exact same thing, except it will be better. It'll be better than yesterday."
Then, I wake up and ... Sorry, it's so windy I thought somebody was creeping around my house. Then, I wake up and my alarm went off, but there's a three year old laying next to me, and if I get up, he's going to wake up, so I can't get up. Even though yesterday was great, I sort of forgot to pack the lunches. Now I have to pack the lunches, so I haven't worked out yet, I didn't get a meditation in, the kids finally get up, I get up, we're running late to work. Then, I realize that I needed to pick up my rental car the night before and I totally forgot to do that, and so now I'm late. I'm running around all day and I'm spending the day 10 to 15 minutes late the whole day, and when I get home I realize I don't actually have time to go for the three mile run that I wanted to do, and maybe I can get a mile in, or maybe two. I forgot I had to lift weights, so when I put the kids to bed, I'm in my sweaty gross workout clothes and I don't get to sit down and relax, and then I workout, and then I realize it's 9:00 before I ate dinner.
What I realize, is that was probably the best I could do that day. That's the best I could do. I just want to sort of give everyone permission to not be better than yesterday, right? I'm all about setting goals and setting to-do lists and really trying to be bettering yourself, but at the same time I think we have to realize that we're all pretty okay, right? There's things that we want to do better, sure, and sometimes it's going to happen, but we need to rate ourselves on a curve somehow, or just not rate ourselves at all, even better, and just be okay doing the best we can on any given day. Some days, the best we can do is going to be awesome, because the thing I don't mention is that yesterday when I was looking all fancy and I had the pretty hair going, and the makeup, it was just up because I was going to a funeral. Today, I'm not. I have a baseball cap on to drop the kids off, there's a stain on my shirt, I have workout pants on, I probably will wear this all day to get my workout in. At some point I will squeeze it in between work. I will probably run errands in it.
I might be in this outfit until I get in my pajamas, but you know what? I'm not going to be going to a funeral today, so I'm okay with this being less than better than yesterday. I just want to encourage everyone, take it as it comes, do your best, set goals, sure. We're all about setting goals. We're all about having to-do lists. You know me, I'm very goal driven. I'm all about breaking down my big goals. Putting them into little to-do lists, and then having eight to-do lists I can check things off of. One of my phone, and one on my planner, and I love it, I love it all. Sometimes we just have to give ourselves a pass and say, you know what? This is the best I could do. Just like we probably tell our kids to do our best, I think that it's okay if we tell ourselves the same thing. Just do your best. Some days your best looks cooler than others. Some days your best means that you did eventually put pants on, and some days your best means that you got fancy, and some days your best means that the kids ate cereal for dinner, and all of that is okay. That is my little, I don't know, Monday muse. Is there a hashtag about that? Anyway, I hope you all have a really great day and yeah, happy Monday.
xoxo,
Tovah