Your Friend, The Struggle
This blog was supposed to be titled "The lazy girl's guide to making your body goals easier this year." I finished it in record time and sent it to my sister for editing. Her first words back were "this one didn't connect with me" so... I turned the question on myself. Did I connect with it? On a fairly superficial level, yes. I do all of the things I was going to recommend to make your fitness goals easier to reach. Yet none of those things will do much to cause a greatly-needed difference in my life this year. I also had to acknowledge that this type of blog is pretty typical of what you will see this January. Tips and tricks on how to get there faster, make it easier, and so on. Pondering this brought a recurring question to my mind. Why do we spend so much of our lives trying to avoid the struggle when it's inevitable? "Struggle" is so real life that it's part of every great story ever written, every movie ever made, and it's ALWAYS in the narrative of the people we aspire to be more like.
I'm not talking about the kind of unimaginable struggle that many people in this world face- I can't speak to that. I've lived a privileged life, and my struggles are relative. I'm talking about the micro struggles that we face daily in the effort to better ourselves and our lives. The things that fill me with an immediate sense of "how do I make this easier or get out of it completely"? The things that most often get procrastinated, sometimes until even the urge to do them goes away.
The relationship I have with my struggles feels like the relationship you would have with a formidable boss that you don't know very well, but you're always trying to avoid, even though she's the one writing your paycheck.
Maybe it's the curse of being born into a comfortable enough life. Maybe it's the convenience culture we've become addicted to as a society. Whatever the reason, it's ironic that we acknowledge the importance of struggle and yet daily we try to get out of it. Is struggle the villain or is it our relationship with it that makes it so dreaded?
Could the struggle become our friend, or at least an impactful colleague? The kind of friend that keeps our senses sharper.. that challenges us even when we don't want to be challenged?
Some friends make you better, some make you worse but how do you know unless you get to know them? Maybe we suffer more than we need to, just because we don't get close enough.
Whatever it is that compels me to spend so much of my time trying to get away from the minor hardships that keep my senses sharp, my intention this year is to change that. To become friends with each and every struggle, or at least get to know them. Maybe some of them are unnecessary, but I never realize that because I'm so focused on making them easier. Do I need to agonize over losing that last 5 lbs or could I realize that I'm just subjecting myself to a social standard that I don't even care about? Maybe if I got down and dirty with my struggles, I would be able to identify them better, be more selective about which ones I keep in my life. Which ones will build my character and strength if I embrace them, and which ones I can let go of because they are wasting my energy and emotion.
So instead of giving you eight tips to make your life easier, I'm not going to give you any advice, I'm just going to leave this here because maybe you're going through the same struggle to embrace the struggle. Perhaps we can support each other in the challenge to make friends with our struggle's this year.
That said, the only other thing I'll leave you with is a damn good deodorant (click here) and a drink recipe (click here) that will make meeting your body goals more enjoyable this year. 😉😉
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