Start From Where You Are

 Recently I read a post by one of our fellow bloggers, who mentioned saving her grocery receipts over the next year and I thought it was such a great idea to keep up with how much I'm spending and also just to see how prices ebb and flow throughout time.

But, so true to how my mind works, I instantly felt behind because it's November and I could have been doing something like this for the past 11 months, right? 

Likewise, I've been berating myself for not having more traditions during the holidays, which is what the holidays do to me...make me overthink everything. I mean, I do have traditions, but I also love to try new things, so I'm probably a little less traditional than some and for that, I sometimes feel behind.

And on and on it goes, as I think about photos that aren't in albums, or projects I haven't started yet or all the other things that don't add up to "perfect" in my mind. I have ridiculously high expectations of myself, apparently. 

But as I was standing in the kitchen this morning, thinking about all of these things, I said one simple phrase to myself, which was "Start from where you are," and I instantly felt my stress level go down and my expectations come back to reality. 

I have to give myself a break.

What about you?

Are you one of those, like me, who carries a list of expectations for yourself, way above what you would require of others? If you are, then I want to encourage you to be ok with starting from where you are right now.

You can start a new tradition this year and it's ok if you've done something different every year before that. 

You can put your pictures in an album finally and call it good.

You can finally learn a craft or learn to sew or finally keep good records or any number of things you've been putting off or maybe never even thought about. It's ok to start today! 

I'm sure there are things I do on a regular basis that my kids would call traditions or that they know they can count on. Maybe to me, they are just how I do things and I don't really think about them being anything special. I bet you have these things in your routines as well.

So maybe from now on, we don't beat ourselves up for what we aren't doing, but instead we keep on trucking and add what sounds fun as we go along the way. We're never too old to try new things, never too late to start something new. And somehow, in the end, people will remember what touched them and not what you didn't do, but what you did. And who know? They may be glad you didn't carry on with some things you let go of. 

Life is an ongoing journey. Live and learn as you go. 

Until Next Time...

Blessings!