Victories

I'm participating in the Blogging from A-Z Challenge again this year. Today's post is brought to you by the letter V.

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My expectations tend to run pretty high, but as I'm getting older I'm learning to lower those a bit and also to accept all my smaller victories.  I finally figured out that by setting the bar so high, I'll never get to celebrate anything if I don't pay attention to all the small battles I win along the way.  Too much of that leads to constantly feeling discouraged and not good enough.  Ain't nobody got time for that!

One of the small victories I got to happy dance for lately has to do with getting healthy.  This is one aspect of my life that I've noticed has to come 100% from within.  When I try to join groups or have workout buddies, I fail quick.  It's not that anyone drags me down.  I just do better when I have to push myself, for myself.  Even though I've stayed low key about it because I don't want to jinx anything, I do have to pat myself on the back for a job well done.  I have been counting calories and making healthier choices since the beginning of March.  My first short-term goal had to do with my weight and that was to lose 20 lbs by 4th of July.  This week I have reached 18 lbs lost.  Now that it's obvious that if I keep up the good work I'll reach that goal nearly 2 months early, I'm trying to figure out what my next goal should be.  But I'm gonna keep that one to myself until I get there because that has been working out well for me so far. :)

Another small victory to celebrate is having my Mom's storage cleared out.  That's right: between my hubs and his dad, and me and my Mom, we emptied it in one day.  And because she was so good about paying her rent for the last year and a half, the owners of the facility waived the 10 day notice rule for her so she doesn't have to pay a prorated amount for the 4 days next month that would technically be within her vacate notice.  I believe this calls for a round of high fives.  Now we just have to go through all her stuff and separate it into 4 categories: keep, toss, donate, and sell.  We have just under 2 weeks until the big sale, so the sorting starts today!

This crazy mediocre life I live isn't the most noteworthy and it certainly isn't a thrill a minute.  But it's my life and there's very little I would change if I had the chance.  When I start getting down about not being as successful as I feel I should be, or not being talented at this or that, I take a beat and remember that this is a journey, not a destination.  Each little step along the way is worthwhile, and every victory, big or small, is still a victory.