How realistic are you?
Oh, hi friends!
How optimistic are you?
And how realistic are you?
Are you incredibly optimistic about what you might be able to achieve? I am! To a fault! The other day, I posted my to-do list on Instagram. It had 8 things on it, most of which were…big, knotty goals. I was not realistically going to get them all done in one day. I did some! And made progress on others. And completely belly-flopped on the remaining.
But lately I’m seeing the benefit of being optimistically realistic and not just…optimistic. You become a lot more forgiving of yourself.
One example: I work in an office Mondays through Wednesday. As a longtime freelancer, this is a new routine—and one I welcome!—but for months I’ve been telling myself, “Of course I can still have time to run. I’ll just wake up at 6am every day!”
Do I?
No, friend.
I do not.
And then when I do wake up, that little optimistic bubble is already burst, and I’ve slightly deflated myself. For no reason!
Instead, the realistic thing is to say…Realistically, I’m not going to be able to run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…but hey! I’ll make it a priority on the days I’m not working in an office!
I did that last week and it worked. (Also, I know my examples always revolve around working, writing, editing, running, and theater, but...I know myself! That is where I spend 99% of my time!)
Wanna give this a whirl with me?
Here’s to not setting up overly optimistic (alright, delusional) goals and instead saying to yourself, “But this, this I can actually do.”
Liz Hannah, the writer of the 2017 film The Post, is one of my favorite writers to follow on Twitter!
Idina Menzel is a queen. Here's her "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara