best selves

Everything Good Takes Maintenance

Not to rain on your parade, but with all the good we put into our lives, the work involved in making positive changes, the work doesn’t stop there. Good things take maintenance. We live in a world full of distractions, negativity, and busyness, and the good we put into our lives gets chipped away by these things, so if we don’t continue to maintain them, they will eventually become so depleted they will waste away. It takes work to get the good, and it takes work to keep it. It’s also keeping up with the evolution of who we are. As we continue to work on ourselves and grow, the good we once needed may change or evolve along with us, so we may need to do some tune-ups or upgrade, to it as we upgrade ourselves. It may seem daunting to think the work is never done, but once we get in the habit of looking for and working for the good and doing what’s best for us, that work just becomes acts of loving yourself and not so much work most of the time.

Like anything, we have to always check-in with ourselves. It’s easy to rest on our laurels and coast. Especially when things feel good. Even if things feel good it’s important to still make sure they are good, because we can convince ourselves that just because things feel calm, and in reality may have become stagnant, that we’re OK where we are, even if that place isn’t challenging us, or making us happy. Just because there might not be any drama, or negativity, doesn’t mean we can sit back and stop doing the work. Especially for those of us that have come from such places of darkness, and may have had to fight so hard to get out, into the light, we can stop working when we’ve overcome the resistance of our past, and stay somewhere longer than we are meant to.

I like to think of the maintenance as a gift to myself. Work that will give back to me, and those around me, ten-fold, because when I am in a place that lets my true self shine I am able to be at my best and possibly inspire or help others to do so as well. So I look at it as selfish if I am not doing the work, because I am not only cheating myself out of being my best self, but possibly others as well because I am not able to shine my light as bright on the path ahead. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m always excited about doing the work, there are days when I may stomp my feet and wish the work would do itself, but I know when I do get to it, it’ll be worth it, and that work will take me to the next place I am supposed to be. Everything we do and everyone we meet is meant to take us to where we are meant to be next, or prepare us for what’s ahead, so when we keep doing the work, we’re always ready for what may come our way, good, or bad, we’ve got the tools for that particular job.

Our lives are in perpetual motion, life is always happening around us, and hopefully within us, so it’s important to keep up with it and not stall or stop our growth and enjoyment of it. Open your heart and follow it’s direction, feed it with what makes it sing, and make sure you’re giving it enough fuel to give you the gas you need to keep your positive tank, your good tank, full to take you to your next destination. SLAY on!

SLAY OF THE DAY: Do you shy away from doing the work you know you should be doing to be your best self? Why do you do that? Is it a way to punish yourself? Do you think you’re not worthy of good? Are you hoping it’ll fix itself? It won’t SLAYER. When you do something good for yourself, do you feel good? How exactly do you feel? Write it down. When you don’t want to do good things for you look at what you just wrote, remember the feeling and let that inspire you to get to work. When we do more good for ourselves we attract more good. That good starts a fire inside of us and the heat and flames grow higher as we keep putting more good into it, and when it’s burning we can share those flames with someone else who may be sitting in the dark. Ignite that spark in you, and keep feeding that fire.

S – self L – love A – appreciate Y – you

Low-Grade Unmanageability

Before stepping on this path, my life was unmanageable. I mean, I wasn’t even living life, I was just going through the motions. It was obvious to me that things weren’t good, weren’t working, and weren’t looking good, the damage I was doing to myself was evident, and so when I reached out for help I cleaned house of all the things that stood in my way of a healthy and productive life. That was a good start, but what took me some time to realize is that even after I did that, and those big road blocks to my well-being had been taken away, I was still doing damage to myself in smaller, almost undetectable ways.

A lot of us function with a low-grade unmanageability in our life, like a dull hum in the background, one you almost can’t hear, but if you stop and listen it’s there. We may not even know we’re doing it, but, it’s the little things we do to ourselves to cause stress and discomfort in our lives, because we still think that’s what we deserve, that’s where we’re at our best, or chaos is all we’ve ever known, so we silently throw some chaos in our way life confetti to create a chaos party. At this point you may be asking yourself, do I do that? We all do to an extent, and, it can be just as damaging, or possibly more so, than the big glaring ways we may make our lives unmanageable.

Low-grade unmanageablity can be things like, not leaving on time so you’re constantly racing to not be late, not opening your mail, not washing something right away before a stain sinks in, letting your insurance lapse, waiting until the last minute to start your taxes, the list goes on, there are countless ways we sabotage ourselves everyday, and keep ourselves off solid footing and in peace of mind.

In a way it’s one of the cruelest forms of cruelty we commit on ourselves because it’s so subtle, we may not even realize the extent of the damage we’re causing. We may just chalk it up to forgetfulness, or being busy, or, procrastinating, or, we’re just not good at keeping track of the small things, but those small things add up to one big problem, we are damaging ourselves, and preventing ourselves from being our best selves. It is a way to keep harming ourselves, but we disguise it as something else. It can be very deceptive, or we can possibly know exactly what we’re doing and do it anyways. There are so many ways to practice this low-grade unmanageablity in our lives that we may lose sight of how many different ways we’re doing it.

When we are not taking the next right action, or stepping up to a responsibility, or not doing what’s best for us, we are possibly putting ourselves in danger, and it may not be physical, although it can be, but many times it’s just that hum, that annoying hum that keeps us agitated enough that we can’t find our peace, our happy place, but we are the ones who are doing it, and we are the ones who have the power to stop it. Make a commitment today to identify the low-grade unmanageablity in your life, what damage are you doing that you can turn around to give yourself that best chance of a healthy life? What little bumps can you take away that will give you a smoother road to travel? You may be setting yourself up for failure SLAYER, one tiny action at a time.

SLAY OF THE DAY: Can you identify the ways that you might create low-grade unmanageablility in your life? Why do you think you do this? How does it harm you or cause you stress or pain? How can you stop doing those things? Do you want to stop doing those things? If not, why not? SLAYER, there are many things we do not have control over, so why do we put roadblocks up for ourselves to keep us from being our best? Identify the ways you can clean up your side of the street, and keep your road to happiness free of any obstacles you may put in your own way. SLAY on!