Friday, August 13, 2010

What Would You Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail?

This isn't a beauty post or a workout post; this is more of a pep-talk based on the titular question.

I've been comparing this week to Shark Week, in terms of all the insanity that I faced. It didn't take me until around Wednesday afternoon to kick everything back where they were supposed to: sorted out my classroom issues, got my personal affairs in order, squeezing in a few workouts.

Which is not to say that my life is awesome right now. I'm still wrestling with a little heartbreak (don't worry, it's not romantic) and I'm still neurotic about whether or not I've injured myself by stepping up my workouts. There are still pockets of my day that I could use for more meditation and silence, and even those are often interrupted.

But what would I do if I knew I could not fail?

Here's where the "Eye of the Tiger" moment comes in: I have to believe that I can do it, setbacks be damned. So far I've resolved most of the conflicts in my classroom by letting go of my need for absolute control; I don't know if it's too late, but it's better than nothing. Same goes for my diet: I can cry all I want about things I can't eat, or I can work through the issues and make all the adjustments.

If I knew I could not fail, I'd put down the newspaper and the RSS feeds (two sources of unnecessary aggro) and thwart all the odds: spend more time with the people I love, work on that screenplay, get involved with my community. If I knew I could not fail, I'd do that and keep my room clean and get some bloody antihistamines so I would stop sneezing during Mass.

I've been teaching my kids this week about positive self-talk and helping each other with our goals. It's about time I convicted myself on that one, too.

1 comment:

kuri said...

great way to look at things!
I will exercise more, cook more, travel more within my country.
And spend more time on reflection and study.
And keeping my room clean!