Progress, not perfection: lessons from #last90days

I’ve been thinking about the progress that I’ve made during the #last90days effort I started in October.

Unfortunately, I don’t have double digits of weight loss on the scale to show for it, but I honestly think what I have learned is worth more than looking my best in Christmas pictures. (And that's saying a lot.)

Theory I do not subscribe to ;-)

1. Renewed sense of effort. Trip-ups don't completely stop me anymore -- or at least not for long. Turns out that when I'm focused on being the best version of myself, there isn't a lot of room for mental and emotional self-mutilation. Who knew?!
   
2. New love for motivational quotes. No, they’re not for everyone, but I love them. And good news: no one is making the people who hate them follow me! What has been fun is having people I've known my whole life and people I haven't met come out of the woodwork saying they needed some encouragement right then. Happy to help!
   
3. Education on habits. I don’t want hard or harsh lessons to apply to me, and yet... they do. So when I heard Rachel and Dave Hollis talk about how to break bad habits, I gave it a shot. And I’ve learned — and am learning — that when I do stop and think about how I react to triggers and make a conscious choice to take a different action than what I’ve taught myself, I am starting a new habit. A better habit. I can’t change *what* makes me reach for chocolate, but I can change how I react to what has always driven me to reach for chocolate.
   
4. Less concern about what other people think. As a chronic people-pleaser, this may be something I'll be working on for the rest of my life, but even baby steps have been HUGE for me. I'm not sure where I got the idea that making others happy equated kindness, but it's deeply entrenched in everything I am and most of what I do.
   
   But the fact is: happiness is temporary. Circumstantial. Fleeting, even. And because everyone is different, it takes something different to bring happiness to others -- especially when you surround yourself with a wide range of personalities and skillsets. So my not making sure every person in my life is happy with every interaction every second of the day is not rude. The only person I can truly please is the only person whose expectations and sources of joy I implicitly know inside and out. And that's me. So when I'm showing up for myself and becoming the best Rebekah I can be, the people around me will benefit, too. Long-term. 

So yes, I still want to lose weight as a result of exercising and eating right and drinking water like a fish. But I'm learning that the end result isn't where the valuable nuggets are learned, and that I can love myself in the journey.

Progress is a beautiful thing.

Lordy, lordy, look who's....

....40:

The moonwalk!

Nah, not the one MJ did (though that may be 40, too), but the one Neil Armstrong did (or did he? hmmmmm).

It's interesting, though, how fast technology has moved along. I was surprised to learn this happened a mere 7 years before I was born. Really? I figured it was way earlier than that.

And to think that my Grandma Johnson, who was born in 1904, saw everything from horses and buggies....to birthing 11 children (!) in her home (!!)....to automobiles....to electric lights....to outdoor plumbing coming inside....to bought milk and chickens....to -- gasp! this was a horrid day that I WELL remember! -- 2% milk!....to television....to girls showing not only their ankles to men they weren't married to, but also their legs....to telephones....to an actual boombox....all all by the time she passed away in 1991.

Whatever side of the walk-on-the-moon debate we're on, we gotta admit: a lot has happened in the last 100 years, much less the last 40.

You go, Neil, and Grandma Johnson, and Pop Ball, and Nan, and Aunt Mildred, and Uncle Isaac, and all the others who did and continue to stick with this crazy fast world for as long as you have.
One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.

So, so true. With every step we take.

Long live the progress.