Trying to Focus on the Gratitude of Productivity

I admittedly have not been doing great on my plan to write every morning. Life continues to throw challenges our way and to be honest – I’ve been tired. Its far easier to scroll my phone in the morning than force myself to do something productive. But last week I managed to work out every day despite multiple things that could have thrown me off track. As I sit here this morning staring at the glow of our beautiful Christmas tree – I feel motivated and decided its time to add another improvement to my schedule this week. The things that have *sort of* kept me sane in the last few weeks have been working out and focusing on all the things I have to be grateful for in my life. As hokey and cheesy as it may sound -focusing on all the blessings in my life help to keep me grounded during difficult times. Sometimes it is a serious challenge to see all the things we have to be thankful for when life feels heavy and you can’t catch a break. Some days its a warm cup of coffee or a text from a friend – but remembering I have all the things required to make that cup of coffee or I’m fortunate enough to have a friend reach out is enough to help center me. 

When the world shut down in March of 2020, I started posting a daily “Coronacation” update on my personal Facebook. I did them daily from March til June and was shocked at the number of people that actually engaged with them on a regular basis. When things started to get a little more normal in June of 2020 I stopped the daily posts. What was more shocking than the number of people that liked and commented on the posts – were the number of people disappointed that I stopped. I did the posts so that my family would have something to look back on and remember how we spent the time when the world was so weird. After so many people mentioned missing my daily posts, I brought them back at the end of 2020 as the world started shutting down again. These posts have been showing up in my Facebook memories this last week and I realized what people enjoyed most about the posts was no matter how shitty the day was – and some were really rough – I always found the positive things to highlight. No one wants to remember the day your child freaked out and threw all the sofa cushions on the floor. But remembering Coco the Elf brought a rocket for Zara or that I worked out with Zoe in her room with a giant Harry Styles staring over my shoulder or that we all snuggled together to watch a Christmas movie – those are the memories I’m so very grateful to have. For years Zara and I have looked at Facebook Memories over breakfast – and while we were eating this morning – after having already started writing this – I decided its time that I start channeling a little more of that gratitude and glass half-full mentality that lived inside me during the height of the pandemic. 

There is a difference between pretending your life is “Instagram-worthy” perfection and choosing to focus on all the amazing things in your real life. There isn’t one person on this planet that doesn’t have their “shit”. Whether its family issues, debt, a horribly messy closet, whatever – everyone has it. I choose, for the most part, to deal with that away from social media. I choose to share things that make me happy, could make others laugh, or in some cases – things that I’m truly passionate about. With everything going on in the world right now, we could all use a little more of that. Today, I’m grateful for the reminder that life is perfectly imperfect and I’m so happy to be here, I’m so happy I managed to make time to write down my thoughts…and I put a TON of laundry away. Look out, World, I’m on fire! As we move through this holiday season, I’m promising myself to not get bogged down with the “busy” and instead, just try to keep moving, focusing on how grateful I am that I CAN keep moving and how great it feels to get shit done.