Falling up stairs. Don't pretend it's never happened to you.
Yesterday, I looked for my glasses for 30 minutes before I realized they were on my head. Then, I fell UP the stairs. Twice. And I'm pretty sure I paid for my Starbucks and left my drink on the counter because I have no idea where it went. Who knows, maybe it's splattered on the windshield of the car behind me because I left it on top of my car. Ugh, can you tell I'm having one of those weeks when I have too much on my mind? In pursuit of some modicum of perfection, I am always frazzled.
Making people remove their corrective lenses also helps.
In light of Mother's Day that just passed, I want to (belatedly) praise all women, not just mothers, that you are amazing for "doing it all" as defined by your own terms. But sometimes, I wonder, do we put WAY too much on our plate? It's LIFE, not a Vegas buffet, after all. If ever the law of diminishing returns is more apparent, it's when you're working your way through your third plate of Prime Rib.
One of the best pieces of advice I've received (and the piece of advice I can NEVER follow), was given to me by a masseuse while she was working out a knot the size of a Mini Cooper. She told me that perhaps I might try to ACCOMPLISH LESS.
This made me think because no one had ever suggested this to me. In fact, I don't think I had ever put those two words next to each other in my life! As with many of my readers, I have always felt like I needed to take full advantage of my biological right to be a mother, and my hard-fought political right to be a career woman. To not squander the resources at hand to have the perfect home (uh, ever check out Emily Henderson's blog?), to be the perfect mother/wife/bestfriend/girlfriend/daughter, to be the perfect host/party-planner, to be the perfect colleague and employee, all while looking like a J. Crew model?
What I look like when I roll out of bed. Yup.
I don't think that Accomplishing Less means getting sucked into a Real Housewives of Who Knows Where Marathon (altho that sounds kind of amazing) while eating Frito-Lay queso with your fingers straight out of a jar (also kind of amazing). I think it just means appropriately Lowering Standards and Saying No. But, isn't this what Sheryl Sandberg and her Lean In gang are telling us is wrong with women today?
For one week, I've decided that I'm going to try to Accomplish Less. Who knows? Maybe it will help me realize that I'm actually Doing More. And help me realize that having it all is very different than doing it all. At the very least, I hope it means that I won't fall up the stairs anymore...because my shins can't take it anymore.