Not optional

So we can all take a deep breath now, right?  We have gifted and feasted and sung and played.  Maybe we have to deal with the inevitable detritus today, but that seems positively manageable compared to the lead-up to the holiday.

While we’re taking that breath, we can consider how best to move today.  Maybe more deep breaths are in order and something gentle and lengthening?  Pilates or yoga would be a good choice.  If we feel a bit of a letdown after all the excitement, the mood-boosting of some cardio could help.  And if we happen to have some residual stress or even frustration or anger, what better place to take it out than in the gym?  The weights do not have feelings to hurt, so we can grunt and yell at them as much as we want until we feel better.

Please notice that I’m not considering the movement optional.  We don’t have to do a lot of moving today, but we do have to do just a little because it really will leave us better afterward.

Go play.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  (If Christmas is not your holiday, merry Wednesday, instead!)

One way to talk about Christmas, from a religious perspective (don’t panic!  I’m not about to preach, really.) is to say it is about the incarnation.  It celebrates that Jesus had a body, basically.

We can celebrate having a body every single day!  What would your body like today, on this holiday?  A little eggnog?  A brisk run around the block?  Some luxurious extra sleep?  Whatever makes your body happy (and trust me when I say that eating the entire box of See’s candy will not make your body happy) is a good plan for today.

Enjoy!

On plans

I know I’ve written before about my love for office supply stores.  It’s not just that I love pens and paper and paperclips, although that is true.  It’s that I love the illusion of order that they sell.  I walk in and become convinced that if I had the right adorable filing system or the perfect calendar-planner I would be suddenly transformed into the fabulous-haired, non-stressed, world-changing human I have always been meant to be.  (No, I have no idea why office supplies would fix my hair, which has been impervious to the ministrations of professionals and is hopeless in my own, incompetent hands, but fantasies are weird like that.)  It is therefore not a surprise that my newsfeeds are full of alluring planners that offer me Success and Scientifically Proven Methods and systems Tested By Monks (or maybe it was chimpanzees?).  I see them and drool, metaphorically, over the lovely pristine pages and the beautiful bullet-point lists in tidy handwriting.  I envision myself, color-coded, on the ball, seamlessly transitioning from one task to another, not forgetting the milk or the workout or the dry cleaning or the handmade perfect gift for everyone’s birthdays.

Then I wake up.

I know about how to set goals and I can reel off lots of ways to structure those goals for success.  It isn’t about the planner or the pens or the sticky notes.

The uncomfortable truth of the matter is that someone else’s perfect system probably isn’t mine, or anyone else’s.  Setting the goals is the easy part.  Getting the work done is the challenge, and most of the getting-it-done is messy and can’t be bounded in a bullet list.

I’m not saying that having a fancy notebook is bad.  If it’s inspiring or useful, we should do it.  But maybe we’d do better to focus on the quality of the work we put in, not the quality of the planner we use.