Now that we’ve all gotten through that first (and some might say unbearable) month of the year, it’s a grand (and some might say painful) time to take a quick looksee backward to collect a few points of data.
I call this month the time of RECALIBRATION because with all the frenzied excitement of December’s last week, which is stuffed full of well-meaning (some might say drunken) promises we nearly tattooed to our skin with the bulldozer determination of rebranding ourselves into the new shinier 2015 version, it can get overwhelming.
Some might say paralyzing.
I see no need for any of us to shrink away from our former selves, or the vows we made to our former selves. Like campaign promises, circumstances change: real life slaps us upside the head, supporters who swore they’d have our back are getting crabby because the timeline is too slow, we’ve finally had a moment to sit down and read the fine print, and in some cases, we discover that Lincoln’s historic and exclusive bedroom smells like Lincoln’s socks are still stuffed beneath the bed. All the hype ain’t quite what it was cracked up to be.
So now is a good time to take a deep breath and practice this phrase:
I used to be …
NO GUILT!
‘I used to be’ can be just as cleansing as it is clarifying. For example, I used to be determined to rid myself of the seasonal Jack Frost Flab until Polly Polar Vortex burst through the door and hollered hello.
I have changed my mind. I am now simply always on the ball with early winter prep.
Another illustration might be, I used to be resolute in my goal to sing a duet with Frank Sinatra, but then he died.
I never gave up on this goal, I just came to realize it is doubly difficult to sing two part harmony with a corpse.
There are myriad examples that may be just as revealing, but a little less disheartening like: I used to be young, but now I am … not as young.
But each day that has passed has brought something my younger self did not have:
EXPERIENCE.
Hard won, effortful, exhausting, mind-numbing, hair-curling, wouldn’t-trade-most-of-it-for-the-world experience. (Some of it I would trade. Some of it I would pay people to erase from my memory and the memory of all the others involved, and then I would be at the mercy of those folks for as long as they would allow me to serve them.)
Or how about: I used to be a student—and go figure—I still am.
I used to be a student in a small classroom, then a large classroom, then on a massive campus. Now I am a student, but one without walls. My math assignments are the bills, the budgets and the taxes. English reports are my books and my blog. History is learned from the library. Science is a rich alchemy occurring all around me—from the stove top to the utility room, from the distilleries I study to the labels in my medicine cabinet. School is ever present, and I will always be a student.
At this point in my life, it’s almost as if behind every door I open, someone is flipping on a light bulb, and a small, but vocal collection of brain cells all join together and belt out a beautiful chorus of an aha moment.
I pray their efforts don’t diminish. I hope that one day there will be an ongoing work of symphonic status performing up there.
And I implore science to hurry up and double their labors at successfully creating that special pill/implant/gene therapy that will ultimately improve my concentration, increase my memory, and boost my intelligence. I promise to do great things with it. I promise not to hack the financial industry, or mess about in the tech corridors, or commandeer the world’s defense divisions.
I promise. I can assuredly say that I used to be honest is not a phrase I will ever utter.
I really just want the extra brain juice for a few household experiments like figuring out a cost analysis for the most efficacious and least expensive wrinkle creams, or for what speed my make and model of car would consume gas most efficiently, or whether cryonics will be a sound decision for my hound at some point because I cannot imagine finding another animal as perfect for me as he is. And I will wait for whatever cure veterinary medicine doesn’t have available just yet for some ailment he may nearly succumb to in the future.
That’s what I’d use it for.
I promise.
And how ‘bout this one to leave you with? I used to be afraid to try new things.
I still am. But I never let it stop me. Except when fear equals wisdom. Best not to ignore that little pearl.
Now you look at your life. How many ‘used to bes’ is it filled with?
It takes a significant element of courage and energy to commit to become something. That something that was important to us for a minute, a month, or a lifetime. Identifying your used to be is not a list of your failures.
It is a record of your efforts and accomplishments. It is a sign of movement and momentum. It is a mark of evolution.
~Shelley
(This post was inspired by one of my favorite authors and thinkers: Seth Godin.)
Don’t forget to check out what we’re cookin’ in the Scullery and what we all talked about down in the pub. Plus, you can see more of Robin Gott‘s humor–all from the only pen carved from a human funny bone.
Shelley Sackier 