As I contemplate about my next big article, I have all this great advice but most of the time I don’t know how to follow my own counsel. Lately, as my frustrations become the center of my attention, I find that I am only doing the bare minimum. I know what I need to do to help myself, but the many distractions divert my focus and not on what I should be doing. Its like I am watching myself as if my life is some movie, and I know I shouldn’t go up the stairs where the monsters are, but I find that for some reason I need to go up. I am quietly yelling to myself in slow motion “no,” but my body moves on its own up the stairs. I am doing the opposite of Elder Dallin H. Oaks advice of Good, Better, Best, I am choosing bad, worse, worst. Hopefully I can just stick to bad for the moment and not fall into the worst category. I know what is good or even better but I don’t want to choose those activities, I want the bad one. I know I should have at least eight cups of water a day, but instead I have half of that and have four cups of Mountain Dew to get the rest of my daily water intake. Carbonated water mix with syrup is great, but it is most definitely the bad choice. So, what do I do to fix this?
I find that I have to go back to the basics almost on a daily basis. I might get it right once in a while, but sometimes I have to take a break and realize that I am nowhere close to what I should be doing to take care of myself. I find that there are other things that seem so much more important. You are probably wondering what could be so pressing that I am not taking care of myself. Well, it is simple, I am trying to move forward with life. I am finishing up my Master’s degree, I am looking for a job that has something to do with my Bachelor’s degree and Master’s. I know that my fifteen years in the Air Force has prepared me for the Custodial Arts. Even Heidi says I do a great job cleaning. I am not making fun of those who do that job. It is very important, and many do not know how to properly clean. But, I have other aspirations in this life. In the meantime, I am focusing on my side project of being a travel advisor which helps me with some skills, but it isn’t what I really want to do. I wake up in the morning and focus on making content for social media posts, and research places to go. I have to complete training for different travel companies so I can create travel plans through them. As I am so focused on that and hoping it will work out, I push off eating well, my spiritual side gets put on the back burner, and taking time for my mental health happens when things begin to fall apart. I know what I should be doing, but life seems to be getting in the way.
I know I am not perfect and will probably never get it completely right, but I can continue to try and do better. I think that is what many of us can do. We can recognize where we are falling short and try to be better. And if you are like me, you might have to have a daily reset and work on just the basics. Life may continue to get in the way, but doing a little at a time can help. It has been helping me. I know I am not where I need to be, but I continue to work towards that. There are days I choose worst category decisions, however, I recognize that and I work for making worse decisions, then bad, and hopefully I can start creating better habits and work for making the best decisions. On the other hand, as long as there is Mountain Dew, I will be making bad decisions for a long time when it comes to my daily (carbonated) water intake.
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