If you have been following me for the past few months, you may know that my husband and I recently moved with our three dogs. We placed the majority of our belongings in PODS and downsized from a thirteen hundred square foot home to a six hundred square foot temporary rental while we sell our house. Our temporary housing is a block and a half away from the beach so it was totally worth it to move into a “tiny” house.
I’m happy to say that the five of us are settling in to our new environment and I’m starting to get a routine down.
Moving is a major transition that can interrupt many areas of your life so I decided to be realistic about the expectations I was going to place on myself during this time. All was going well on the “grace” front until the voices in my head showed up. Maybe you are familiar with them. The voices that whisper to you what you “should” be doing, or that you are failing, or a big slacker. Yeah, those.
It’s always a good idea to write your goals down and to set dates when you’d like to see them accomplished so I had laid out everything the way I wanted life to look like by this time this month on paper. It turns out I was being a bit ambitious even though I thought I was being realistic. There were several things I hadn’t factored in to my day like multiple dog walks now that we don’t have a fence, organizing a “tiny” house, and traveling longer distances to run errands.
Give Yourself A Break
Fortunately, as a coach, I walk people through the process of “giving yourself a break” quite often so I was able to recognize those ugly voices in my head. I took a step back and listened to the still small voice that was reminding me that we just moved, I’ve been managing the sale of our house, maintaining my business, taking care of our animals without a secure fence, and figuring out where to buy groceries. Considering what’s on my plate, things are actually going pretty well. We only had one dog disappear for ten minutes (totally terrifying), we are eating home cooked meals, I’ve organized all our clothes, I’m still writing this blog, and we are getting outdoors everyday and enjoying this season in our life. Turns out I’m not a slacker after all.
While most of us know that perfection is totally overrated and none of us can be at the top of our game all of the time, the voices in our head still like to show up and mess with us. Comparison can kick in and we can run through the list of things we “should” be doing and the areas we think or maybe know we have failed in. Beating yourself up is not just emotionally draining. It can kill your joy, your creativity, and your productivity.
It’s important that we work hard and set goals. It’s also important that we remind ourselves that we only have so many awake hours in the day and that different seasons will produce different results.
If you are in a transition right now or starting something new, I encourage you to walk toward your destiny with a flexible calendar and to be kind to yourself.
Here’s a short Facebook Live post I did last week to help encourage you!
Shared with love,
Jennifer
