Recently, I watched a video lecture by Deepak Chopra where he spoke about The Future of Well-Being. If you've ever read or seen Deepak, his conversations can get pretty deep and philosophical, often getting us to think of things that we know (intuitively) to be true, we just never thought about them that way. Among the many things covered during this 60-minute lecture, Deepak touched upon what he referred to as one of the most important things in life:
- TIME -- we have to learn to change our relationship with time. The only time we have is Right Now. Not tomorrow, not yesterday, just right now. Don't say you don't have time for something, make time for it.
Upon the conclusion of the lecture, he summarized everything nicely by saying that we need to SET aside time for: 1) sleep, 2) relationships, 3) exercise or movement, 4) meditation and 5) creative time (or play time or down time). This will make us whole again. I believe that to be true. This is what self-care is all about.
Thus, the inspiration behind the title of my blog today is to remind us that if we want change to happen in our lives, we first have to commit to doing something -- but it doesn't have to look or be perfect all the time. It is better to commit to doing something than to seek perfection at the expense of doing nothing. Let first recognize that there is no "perfect plan". There's always the possibility of something happening that will require us to be flexible and adjust accordingly.
For example, let's say that you woke up on time in order to go out for a 4-mile run this morning. Then as you're lacing up your shoes, grandma calls to say she's not feeling well and she won't be able to take care of your little one this morning. Well, there goes the 4 miler!
But instead of being frustrated, you think creatively and remember that you still have that baby-jogger in the garage somewhere! You're not going to be able to go out and do that "perfect" 4-mile run, but you'll be able to do some exercise while you spend some time with your little one. So instead of running the 4-miles, you decide to walk to the park, play with your kid and walk back home. Yep, DONE is better than PERFECT. You did, in fact, Pay Your Health First by setting time aside for getting the exercise your body needs, even though it wasn't what you had planned for. And, you got some quality time with your kid.
Examples abound. You can apply this to your eating, to your relationships, to your sleep .. basically to anything.
Commit to consistency rather than perfection. When you look back, you'll be glad you did.
Commit to thrive, Pay Your Health First.
-- Chris
