SLIDER

Life in Centimeters

There's a saying that most of the world is familiar with:
One Day At A Time.
Yeah...sometimes that seems like too much for me.  Like, getting through a WHOLE DAY would be impossible, a torture, something beyond my capacity to endure. There are times in life when it has to be
One Hour At A Time, or the more concerning (but sometimes necessary) One Minute At A Time.  It happens.

I recently emailed a friend where I mentioned my tendency to be all-or-nothing, an impatient perfectionist who wants to get up and just miraculously have the energy/will/motivation to run three miles a day and do twenty military push-ups.  I don't want life to be a staircase, building and building up, I just want to do it all now and be good at it all now.  
I do know that's not realistic. 
I build slowly.  Sometimes I have good days where I feel energized and I eat well and feel optimistic for the future.  Other days, I am compromising with myself every five minutes to just get through the next five minutes...and entire hours are spent simply convincing myself to get through the next five minutes...again and again.
Some days I take great strides toward improving myself.
Other days, I am taking smaller, shuffling steps.
Some days, I am inching. 
And others...there are some days where I am merely centimetering along, bit by tiny bit, and the best thing I can say is to bargain with myself: "Just get through the next five minutes, Becky." 



***This was inspired somewhat by this post from The Desert Dandelion where she mentions "inching (or centimetering, if that's a thing) toward...." and I was all "YES! That is the word I am trying to use for baby steps.  Except I can't use baby steps, because all I think is "Baby Step Get on the Bus...Baby Step Get on the Bus...."  This is the word for when One Day at a Time is too big, so all you can do is get through one minute.

 

6 comments

  1. I get ya! I keep being told... embrace the small steps and I'm like, "No, I want it all and now! I want to be better and I don't want to wait." Very childlike tantrum attitude, I know haha!! But I think when I can start doing that, things will actually get moving faster for me. Keep going, we just gotta keep going some days :-)

    Missy xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1/23/2014

    "I don't want life to be a staircase, building and building up, I just want to do it all now and be good at it all now." I can relate to that so much!

    ReplyDelete
  3. if only life were an escalator and not stairs...

    ReplyDelete
  4. That "all or nothing" mindset can be hard to break out of! I get like that about projects, if I can't do it exactly the way I want and right away, then why bother with any of it. I think it's just a way of the brain rationalizing for being lazy, which I excel at :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm right there with you. I want it all and I want it now, and I want a magic wand so I don't have to work so damn hard for it. I want instant gratification!!! Now, damn it, now!!!

    ReplyDelete


© The United States of Becky • Theme by Maira G.