Here’s what happened to me this morning. I’m thumbing through my Instagram feed and see a beautiful girl sitting on a yoga mat with a serene, inspired and motivated look on her face. Cliche, right? You can almost see it in your mind now. These kind of pictures are a dime a dozen on the internet, but the message behind her photo was one that you can’t find just anywhere.
She basically said that you have to be flexible on your journey, whatever your journey may be. This gal is a mama that’s on her own self-defined health and wellness journey. One of her goals is to make time for self-care and reflection. She is a mom that’s just as frazzled as the rest of us, and on this day she only had five minutes to set aside for time on the yoga mat. So she took it. She spent five minutes meditating. She did that and felt good about it. Her message on Instagram was to remind us all that it doesn’t have to be “all or nothing” when it comes to reaching your goals.
I couldn’t agree more. You have to show up and try every day to better yourself and your life. If you “fail,” you have to zoom out and gain perspective on what your definition of “fail” is. Chances are, your definition is black or white with no gray area. It’s “all or nothing.”
Here’s how you should view achieving your goals: If your doing it messy, if your doing it awkward, if you’re only doing it for five minutes, you’re not failing. You’re killing it!
Here’s a personal example. My goal to meditate daily furthers my goal of being a more graceful, patient and productive person. Making sure I wake up in the morning, or setting aside a time for me in the evening, is one way I create time to meditate. There have been stretches of time in the past that did not include any meditation. However, my internal alarm clock that I acquired from my a.m. practice kept waking me up early in the morning and I eventually got back into it. Just the practice of waking up in the morning and making my morning routine non-negotiable helped me slide back into my usual a.m. meditation.
From now on, when you see the perfect Instagram picture, the perfect body, or if you see someone shopping in their pajamas, think about how that person chose to show up for the day, despite their own battle of perfectionism. Then look at yourself and give yourself the same grace. You’re trying, man. Be accountable, keep practicing, keep reminding yourself that there is no such thing as perfection.