I have spent a fair amount of time the last few days trying
to map out some New Year resolutions for myself; I found my plans becoming more
wild and grandiose with each revision, and basically if I was truly successful
in managing this ambitious list, I’d be some sort of zen’d out new age super
rich philanthropist world traveller who also never failed to get her socks into
the damned laundry bin.
So then I tried narrowing it down into something more
manageable, and found myself stymied by the actual context in which I live…you
know, the part where I remember that I can’t hit Australia and Italy this year because I can’t take the time off, and oh yeah:
money doesn’t grow on trees—at least, not until I complete my resolution to
master the arts of both gardening and genetic science so that I can grow a
real-life money tree. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little, but you get the idea: my
goals were pretty lofty. Anyway, when I mentally erased the chalkboard and
tried to start over, I found myself thinking of that book/movie, Eat Pray Love. I thought to myself, “That’s
what I want from myself this year! I want to be like the Eat Pray Love lady!”
WHY LIFE ISN'T LIKE THE EAT PRAY LOVE BOOK
Let me tell you something, people, because this is the truth
of things: life doesn’t really go ‘eat,
pray, love’. For most of us, the path looks more like this:
Eat
Love
Love no more
Eat too much
Pray for weight loss
Love again
Pray for the other person to go away
Love anew
Eat
Pray for more to eat
Eat nothing but kale and beets for months, because someone
tells us these are the new superfoods
Eat a half pound of chocolate chips from the baking cupboard
at midnight
Love
Pray for someone’s failing health
Pray for a new job
Pray for cute boots
Eat Chinese food at the mall and regret it
Love new cute boots
…You get the idea. For most of us, we get the eat-pray-love
all out of order, and we do them all several times over and we often do them
badly. Or in excess. Or not enough. Or at the wrong time, or with the wrong
person, or with the worst intentions.
I’m here to tell you that that’s ok, and that while it may
feel like you’re going in circles, you
aren’t. You’re a smarter, better, stronger YOU with every turn of the
wheel.
The point here is, don’t burn yourself out two weeks into
January by attempting to fabricate a perfect Eat Pray Love year. Be realistic about how life works: it ignores
all the colour-coded, numbered, and itemized plans you have, and it meanders
and wobbles and gets distracted and falls apart.
It’s not going to go according to plan. Enjoy it.
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