"So, you had a bad day..."

{Photo credit to Craig Borchers}

(Sorry if that song gets stuck in your head.)

So, I’ve had a bad morning.

Many many times, when something goes wrong, I just want to throw my hands up and say “forget it”.  I guess I give up easily.  I think I am this way because I am a perfectionist.

A perfectionist wants everything to be perfect.  So if something is not perfect, all is lost.  It’s the end of the world.

Perfection and expectation go hand in hand.  I have such high expectations of myself.  I am expecting myself to rigorously train for a 10K, eat healthy meals that help my moods, sleep no more than 8 hours a night, read new books, paint every day, keep the house spotless, try new recipes, accomplish everything on my to-do list, and so on, and so on…

This morning I woke up with a bit of a cold.  I thought it was allergies at first, but it’s definitely a cold.  So, I went to bed early and slept in a little.  Now, because I slept almost 10 hours, I am beating myself up.  Since I didn’t live up to my expectations, I might as well just forget the whole thing.  I think the popular, yet salty, phrase is “F it”.

Since I’m keenly aware of how not-perfect I am, I might as well go back to bed, only eat chocolate all day long, and forget everything I wanted to get done today.  If I can’t be perfect…then…well…

I notice people do this a lot with food and diets.  If you “give in” to eating a “bad” food, then the rest of the day is shot.  You feel like you might as well eat all the “bad” food you’ve wanted to eat.  Then by the end of the day you feel terrible.  (This is only one reason why I don’t believe in diets.  If you want to read nine more, then check out the post, “10 reasons to give up diets”.)

I will admit there is truth to the belief that each day is a fresh start.  There is a natural rhythm to the spinning of the earth.  Each new morning, new week, month, season, or year can be a new beginning.

But, you also have to be realistic and accept that life is not going to be perfect.

Just because it’s a new day doesn’t mean you are magically going to wake up with new habits and a new life.

Why wait until a new day or a new year to start living a better life?

Today, all I want to do is crawl back in bed and forget.  But, it’s not even 11 o’clock.  There is so much time left in this day – time to make it better.

So today is not perfect, so what?

So, I’ve had a bad morning.

But just because I’ve had a bad morning doesn’t mean I have to have a bad day.