One of the struggles I experience in the New Year is excessive wanting. Taking a moment to step back and dream big is invigorating, yet if unchecked I'm like a hungry college student in the school cafeteria for the first time. My tray is piled high with way more food than I can ever eat.
When excessive wanting turns into expectations, I end up woefully disappointed. So, it's how my planning efforts used to go. I wanted to do more and achieve more so I felt better about myself. It's as though I assumed the number of hours in the day was extended by 25% by sheer willpower.
My approach upheld an underlying belief that I am not good enough. Furthermore, I feared that if I saw myself as good enough, I would stop striving to grow and improve.
As I put the finishing touches on my plans for 2023 there's a core theme underscoring it all. An embodiment of what I learned in 2022 as I endured A LOT of stressful personal challenges - I'm already good enough. The efforts I am making on a day-to-day basis are good enough.
Accepting this notion has felt both uncomfortable and freeing. There are things I wanted to do last year that I didn't get done. But when I step back and look at what I accomplished on the whole, I arrived at my destination, nonetheless. In retrospect, I see that most of the stuff I didn't do was fluff. I did what was most important.
If you're already feeling down and out about your progress in this second week of the New Year, I'm here to tell you - whatever you're doing, whatever you're giving is good enough.
I get that it can be disappointing when your intentions don't pan out. You can allow yourself to feel disappointed without becoming dejected.
Often times we overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do over a year.
Whatever it is your doing or giving is good enough.
You're making progress, even if it seems microscopic. Even if today, that progress looked like taking a nap or just getting through the day without losing it.
You're doing good enough.
By accepting you're already doing good enough, you're giving yourself the best vote of confidence ever!
It's a misnomer that growth and drive has to come from criticism, judgment or fixation on the ways you're not good enough. You can accept you're good enough and strive to do and be better because learning and growing is your birthright for being human.
When I accepted myself as good enough last year, I felt more grounded, calm, and confident in my efforts to better myself and my work. I was able to see things that before I was too afraid to get honest with myself about. I could evaluate my progress and apply lessons learned with greater ease and less fear.
Turns out fixating on all the ways I'm not doing or being good enough just made it harder for me to create the positive changes I wanted to see in my life and work. Once I could accept this notion, I leaned on the practices I already had in place to prioritize and plan so I got the most important stuff done.
Not only are you good enough. You deserve to see yourself as well as your efforts as good enough too!
Is the New Year off to a rocky start? Would you like to set yourself up to thrive in 2023? Join me and fellow wholehearted professionals for the 2023 Annual Planning Workshop where I'll show you how to be more aligned, purposeful, focused, fulfilled and happy. There's still time to signup online here.