It’s OK to Fail

 

We all have so much on our plate: Kids, school, significant others, social obligations, careers, training, nutrition, parents, maybe even competing as well. We try to manage our time as well as we can (see last blog for tips on THAT). We are strong, empowered, dedicated, and disciplined women, who take on the world.

 

But sometimes, the world teaches us a lesson instead. A lesson in capability and humility.

 

I’m going to borrow a concept from Gary John Bishop, the author of Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life. In it, he talks about what happens when you try to juggle too much, and end up dropping the ball on one of your goals. We all think we’re amazing at prioritizing and multi-tasking; but you know what they say about multi-tasking,

“It’s the art of messing up several things at once.”

It’s really hard to be that good at more than one thing. When you tell yourself you’re going to compete, you dive head first into the diet, the training, the fasted cardio, and even reposting the #Fitspo all over your social media. But when push comes to shove, and you’re 8 weeks in, and your kids/partner start putting tempting food in front of you, or your boss starts giving you insane deadlines, or any number of things in your life start getting stressful, you start to slip.

 

Take-out food sounds better than boiled chicken. Sleeping in starts to sound better than cardio. Dinner and a movie is better than training at night. But you hit that deadline, and your family is happy, and your kids are taken care of. You know what? THAT’S OK!!! I’m telling you right now, it’s OK. You’re not as lean as you wanted to be, sure, but it’s all alright. What Gary John Bishop says is that,

“Maybe you didn’t want it as badly as you thought you did.”

While there are moms out there who seem to be able to do it all, you don’t actually know what’s going on behind closed doors. Maybe they’re not great at their job, and they didn’t make the deadline. Or maybe they don’t give their kids as much attention as you do. But that’s because THEY didn’t want to meet the work deadline as badly.

 

Whether it’s consciously or subconsciously, we all pick our priorities. And we become really good at the #1 spot. That’s it. If it’s not #1, or if you don’t succeed, it’s probably because you didn’t want it that badly (and again, that’s OK!). You could have made dinner in advance for your fam, and gone to the gym at 8pm solo. You could have passed on the snooze and gotten up at 6am for cardio. And you could have brought your Tupperware with you to the restaurant – but you didn’t. Because you didn’t want it that badly.

 

So decide exactly what you want. One thing. Choose it, and let it consume you. No ways out, no excuses. Just do the damn thing.