Happy Monday from Boston! I've been in Beantown for a long weekend with my friend Haley and we've had so much fun exploring this beautiful city (it's exploding with history + beauty). But today's post isn't a travel guide, it's continuing my weekly Monday Mavericks series that offers quick bits of encouragement to increase optimism in today's world.
Boston Public Library
As I head back to Chicago later today, I'm already thinking about my long to-do list filled with everything I have to tackle before my next set of travels next week. Aside from the regular things like laundry, grocery shopping and heading to yoga to sweat off some of the over-indulging I did the past few days, I have loads of work that's piled up + is now staring me in the face. As if I weren't already feeling behind, there's a passion project I've been dreaming about for a while that I told myself I'd finally get to work on once I got to Chicago. Except- with a month already under my belt, I haven't really made much of any progress on it like I wanted to.
Life sneaks up on us like that, doesn't it? We can have the best of intentions, but sometimes it feels like we're hamsters on a wheel: working ferociously and going nowhere. It's easy to beat yourself up when you're feeling far from accomplishing all that you hope for or to be tempted to give up altogether at the first sign of a setback.
So today, let's pause and find solace in the fact that just because we're not where we want to be doesn't mean that we're failures or that we're not getting closer. Or as this quote I found puts it:
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Contrary to how you may often feel, you don't have to solve all of the world's problems today. In fact, that's a hell of a lot of pressure to put on yourself and completely unrealistic. Yet sometimes we act like we should try, don't we?
Today, let's absolutely show up to life with all the courage, passion and heart we have in us. Let's take steps in the direction that we want our lives to go (whatever that looks like for you). But let's also respect where we are and not try to plow through to a victory we haven't yet earned. Let's celebrate the areas in our life that we're doing the best we can and give ourselves grace where we deserve it.
If you're like me, this is much easier advice to give than it is to receive. So consider it a friendly reminder to help it set in a bit more. Take a deep breath, turn on some feel-good tunes (I added some new ones to the Monday Mavericks playlist) and keep pressing on- one foot in front of the other.
“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
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I'll be cheering all of you on this week! Stay tuned for the first (of many) London guides I plan to finally share.
Thanks for stopping by, friends! Shine on + keep spread goodness everywhere you go.
xx
Whitney
