Slap you into Shape

With every new year, we set out to make our lives better than the year prior; whether it be losing weight to have that sexy beach bod, gaining a grasp on your finances to get closer to that retirement plan or simply reading the top 100 comics of all time. No matter the task, we set goals that we believe will make our lives better. However, it could not be further from the truth. If you are working out to get that beach bod to simply look fit for everyone to see then, you are not getting healthy for yourself but for others; the experience is tainted from the start because of your perception of the goal you have set for yourself. Pay attention to this word, Perception because I will be mentioning it quite a bit. Perception is everything. You can have the best five-year plan to reach financial freedom but if your reasons for financial freedom are because you have a bougie personality and just want money; ultimately your life will be a waste of time. Or when you hit a wall and you just allow negativity to fill your life simply changing it to something positive will save you from total ruin more than you know; two negatives do not make a positive in real life situations. Your perception can make or break you; it will not be because you skipped out on a week at the gym or that your business investment fell through its because you are stuck on a negative outlook and it is preventing you from getting up and getting your shit together.

I have a question, why is it called Spring cleaning anyways? Why do you HAVE to clean up your “life” in the spring? Is it because Spring symbolizes rebirth and growth and its “appropriate” to organize your home and personal life in the Spring? Well, I call bullshit! In my opinion, you showed be continuously cleaning up your life when you see yourself going off the rails.

Now, it would be ridiculous for me to state that everyone has the compacity of self-awareness at the speed of light because I know for damn sure I do not have the self-awareness of Gandhi. However, I do believe everyone has the potential to strengthen their self-awareness where they can catch those moments of irregularities in their lives and correct them in the appropriate time span that is their own and no one else’s’. I am a thirty-year-old woman that has had a loose grip on her life allowing others to use her to their will because the problems of others are easier than your own; and do not say you yourselves have not put your own lives on hold to help someone close to you. In allowing this, I have been oblivious to certain truths of myself and now that my mind is free to finally choose myself; I am in full control of the steering wheel of my life. We are imperfectly perfect, we all get lazy, and we allow our stress to get the best of us; I have the perfect formula for getting MY life together that you all should take into consideration.

Stability, Love, Awareness, and Perception. These four words have been things I have struggled with my whole life and ironically are what have been helping me find my identity; a way to really put a mirror up to myself when I see myself coloring outside of the lines for too long. I simply ask myself four questions related to my four words if I answer negatively to any of them; I try my best to correct it to the best of my ability. Even something as simple as organize my sock drawer.

Have you noticed that as the years go by your laundry habits get more and more lazy? When I was kid, I used to love folding my clothes and making sure everything had its pair; it was a different kind of puzzle every week especially in my aunt house seeing it was some twenty of us all in one house but now? I just wash, dry, fold and stick it all in one place. I have gotten so lazy that I stick my passport and my movie tickets collection in my sock drawer; if covid was over tomorrow and I wanted to get out of the States I would go fishing in Sock Lake for my passport. The other day, shifting through my mis-matched socks looking for my Chapstick, I looked around my room and all I could hear was Raven Symonè catch phrase, “ YA NASTY!”

I asked myself, is my life stable? No. Do I love myself? Yes. Was I aware of this mess? No. Is my perception negative or positive? Negative because I allowed the stress of my life overrun my living space and that was stupid of me. The smallest change can have more of an effect on your life then say up and moving to another state to start anew. Matching my socks will bring stability to my room which will make my mornings run smoothly, which would give me a high chance of not leaving my home grumpy which would lead to me having a good day. So, I connected my Bluetooth and started matching my socks; not only my socks but I ended up donating two bags of clothes out of my closet that with all the extra space in there, I decided to move on to my next step of being a true minimalistic and not buy anymore clothes for the year and with what I save on clothes, it can go towards building my credit.

Soon enough I am blasting a mix of 90s grunge and Disney classics throughout my home that I ended up calling off work and just cleaned and dance with my dog Zoey the day away; by dinner time, my entire home was as shiny as a penny. When I sat there enjoying my meal, I asked myself again, is my life stable now? Yes. Do I love myself? Yes. Am I aware that I choose to clean my home instead of going to work? Yes, and I fully accept the consequences if any tomorrow because it was worth the time to get my home in order. Has my perception changed? Yes, even though I allowed my home to be a wreck for a moment; I am not stupid for allowing it. I just gave myself an opportunity to let loose and enjoy my life by allowing this mess to form.

So simple. Changing one perception can lead to so much growth even in moments of grief or heartache. Think about yes, death sucks but its also a part of life just as much as living your life. A loved one dies, and it becomes nuclear war inside of you but instead of being distraught, look at death as a beginning not the end. Your loved ones are no longer in pain and are living a life beyond ours and that alright because you both know you are still connected regardless of what’s beyond life and death. Or let us say you hate your job because it takes away from being able to plan your own business. You hate something that much change it to something you do not. how about you find a new job that allows more free time for business planning? Look at how fast the perception can change and work in your benefit.

Ultimately, we are all looking for ways to benefit, looking out for #1. Some may see its selfish and to some extent its true. However, I believe there should be a balance between being selfish and being kind. Every interaction we have with one another there is a transaction of time; quality time is much more valuable than materialistic items that will soon need to be replaced. Time may not be real but for something that’s relative it has more of an impact in our lives than anything else. Whether you want to be a part of that exchange of time is all up to you. Some can see these opportunities of benefit so fast that before you know it, they are living their lives to how they see fit. However, that does not mean that us slightly less advance folk cannot keep up. We are all searching for a happily ever after; whether that be being married with two kids with a cat and dog with a white picket fence or living off grid in Costa Rica with nothing but papayas and a compost toilet (my happily ever after 😊)

With my line of questioning I have been able to get my life in order when things seem to be at their worst. How stable is your life right now, in doing such actions will it bring stability to your life? Will doing such actions bring love or hate to your life? How aware are you of yourself to allow things to continue to happen to you or stop an opportunity for occurring or allowing it to happen? Where is your mind at; is your perception of you or the situation negative or positive and how can you make it better for yourself?

In lamest terms, we all need a SLAP in the face to bring us back to reality from time to time to set the record straight.