A Little MS with a Little MSW

Word on the street is that our ‘best’ can vary from day to day. If we show up and offer whatever we have to offer on any given day, then we have done our ‘best.’ How about we reframe that for a minute: If you have significantly less than your best to offer on any given day, give yourself permission to slow your pace in the rat race. Maybe the exertion of max effort in the relentless pursuit of the ever-elusive Perfectionism is killing us. Maybe hot dogs are bad for our heart. Or maybe it’s the hot dogs and our misguided notion of best self that are pushing us closer to the cemetery down the street.

I am a self-proclaimed Type B and find life quite comfortable here. I wholeheartedly do NOT put forth max effort on most things in life. I guess I am old school, but I define my ‘best’ as the times I throw my heart and soul and everything under the kitchen sink at something. Admittedly, I am not doing that MOST of the time.

Like many, I have so much more ability and potential than I choose to exercise. Most of the time, I’d rather sit on my couch with my dogs. I love my couch and I love my dogs. Most people would call that lazy and I wholeheartedly agree with most people. My lazy streak is a mile wide, but my self-care game is strong.

Where have adult coloring books been all our lives? I mean, really.

My best? Maybe I’m tired. Maybe I’m sick. Maybe I don’t like you. Maybe my grown-ass self sitting in my pajamas on my couch with my dogs, gulping red wine from the bottle, gripping a crayon with my fist, preschool- heathen style, vigorously scribbling inside the lines of the giant ‘F’ of the phrase FUCK YOU proudly displaying itself inside the pages of my Things You Can’t Say at Work coloring book is me being ok with NOT being ok.

I say all this to say, I think we can leave the concept of ‘best’ alone. ‘Best’ should stay reserved for those heart-and-soul efforts that sporadically dot our lives. We aren’t at our best most of our lives because we are tired, or we are sick, or we are lazy, or we don’t like you.

And that’s ok.