So …
We obviously haven’t been doing a whole lot of blog writing these last few weeks. Instead, life just has me running from crisis to crisis without having time to come up for air. Just in the past two weeks:
- Becca had her thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) surgery. The recovery has been MUCH more difficult than we expected, and while she is making great progress she always suffers much pain.
- My son got a 6-inch 2nd degree burn on his neck and shoulder.
- Same (and only) son had a horrific and gory accident with a saw — you probably saw the pictures on our social media.
- Our family suffered another emotional trauma that has rocked one of us to the absolute core to where we are ALL suffering tremendously.
I’m now running TWO recovering kiddos to post-op and physical therapy appointments since both of their surgeries have left them unable to drive for a while. I have a full-time job I am constantly having to take time off for all of this, plus working on OurMonsters part-time in the evenings on top of everything else.
So … this nice goal I was setting to be able to take more time for myself and take better care of myself? It’s been
BLOWN TO
COMPLETE,
MICROSOPIC
SMITHEREENS!!
Sufficeth to say, I’ve had a meltdown or two (or three). I have done quite a bit of yelling and screaming in my head that I don’t have the luxury of doing out loud for the time being!
I have also spent a bit of time laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, and rolling my eyes at how my hope for a surgery-free, illness-free 2021 (after nine years of living this way) is shot. Also at the reality that it only took 6 days into the New Year to have my goals utterly derailed.
I think many of us have already felt that during just the first few days of the year.
“Well, blew that goal. Not doing it anymore!”
or thinking:
“My goals are no longer something I can accomplish!”
But is that really true?
Not so much. I set some specific ways in which I wanted to accomplish my goal. Those particular methods have become entirely impossible. Not the goal itself.
We don’t fail when we don’t accomplish the goal in the way that we initially wanted — we fail when we give up on it entirely.
Life throwing curveballs at us is a constant we can all count on at some point or another. During all these years of sickness, I have learned that our goals have to constantly adapt to change our circumstances. We’re always going to run into obstacles, and we have to dig deep and find a way around them. All of us. We have to continually adapt the methods of accomplishing our goals to match these circumstances. Plain and not always so simple. As Becca said earlier, flexibility is key to actually accomplishing what we want.
So join me in taking a deep breath and continually redefining your goals to help you become healthier, smarter, more productive, happier or whatever your goals are. We can still do this!
