You remember Feris Bueller's saying: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." That is how I feel today. It is like in a blink another year has come and gone and I'm left wondering, did I miss it? I think as mothers we're often consumed by the little details so much that we miss the big picture. We are so busy doing everything that we don't enjoy it. Can we be in the thick of it and participate fully or can we be present.
I dug into MaverickRx in 2019 at the expense of The Mama Bird. Now when I sit and look back on the moments that really busted me up in 2019, I feel remiss for not writing them down. It is disappointing; I have to acknowledge and accept my own limitations in my personal, creative spaces. Who likes to accept their own limitations? Um.... no one. Zero people want to talk about the shit they didn't get around to doing. The thing is MaverickRx did distract me from writing; but it also gave me a wild goal wrought with challenges and littered with dreams.
Every year I have LOFTY goals. Thanks for that, Dad. I want so badly to reach each goal. I try and try and keep trying. But in the midst of all that trying, something gets left undone. I cannot be an exceptional mother, with a spotless house, laundry folded and put away, teach fitness, build a YouTube channel, write a blog, see my friends and family, read books, date my husband, maintain a lovely yard, and have a full-time job. Or can I?
Someone recently asked, "how do you do it all?" Super simple. This is one you'll need to write down: I don't do it all.
Acknowledging my limitations and fessing up to what I'm not going to get done is how I don't do it all. Things that truly matter are the only things I'm giving brain space to in the twenties - the things that make me feel entirely WHOLE. For example, how clean my house is or if my yard is pretty have nothing to do with what makes me feel whole; and the laundry can jump off a bridge for all I care. Let's not even go there. These are not unique aspects of what make a life. These are universal "have-to's". Disinfect, clean, mow, fold... everyone has to do this stuff. It cannot, therefore, consume any brain space or plague us with stress.
Before I was a mother there were a few things that made me, well me. I lived to read and write. I spent hour upon hour listening to music. I hung around people who refueled me with laughter. We talked about books, music, and culture. Those are non-negotiables for me to be me. Creating, feeding my brain, and connecting with the most valuable people in my life, even for a quick coffee or phone call, give me a boost.
I fell in love before I was "Mom!" I fell in love with a man who makes me laugh and snort and who puts up with my countless lists and dreams. He supports almost all of my ideas and when he doesn't he says so. Although, I can't think of a time he said so exactly. He might have made fun of an idea a time or two or screamed at me, "You and your ideas!" But for the most part, 98% of the time, he is all in.
Once I became a mother, I also fell in love with my kids and fitness. I didn't teach fitness until I had my first daughter. Over the course of the past thirteen years, fitness has become engrained in my being. It is my sanity saver. Motivating other humans to move, picking them up when workouts get really hard, and making them smile through the challenges really lights my fire.
My kids are my favorite people, hands down. They each have an energy all their own, unique quirks and personality traits that sometimes resemble me or their dad, but are most definitely their own spin on existence. Most of the time we get along well, until someone breaks an XBox controller, the tv, or drags around in the morning and makes mom late to work which forces mom to come unglued. But my mom friends assure me, that's normal.
Brain space is limited. What we allow into our brain space - what we allow into our lives is absolutely within our control. To feel like a complete, whole human we get to select where, what, and who we want to put energy into. My goal for 2020 is to allow my brain space to be filled with three essential aspects of my life that make me feel whole: human connection, creativity, and movement.
I invite you to take a minute and assess what will fill your brain space in 2020. What makes you whole and uniquely you? What doesn't actually matter in your life that you are allowing to fill your brain space with and, in so doing, creating stress? Let go of the non-essentials and focus on the aspects of life that fill you with energy and excite you every day.
