Your best will always be enough

Sometimes we have to remember: we are not a microwave, we don’t beep when we are ready or perfect. Imagine the confusion it will cause.

Found the perfect Christmas gift at the mall. Beeeep! Just had the best cup of coffee. Beeeep! I got out of bed today. Beeeep! Washed my hair. Found a parking sport. Brushed my teeth. Charged my phone. Went to bed early. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Everyone will sound like a broken microwave. Or maybe even the heart rate monitor in hospitals. Imagine what would happen when you don’t accomplish anything and you don’t beep. I can already hear sirens and see flashing lights of emergency vehicles speeding toward you, ready to give you a shock with the defibrillator. And you are standing in the mall’s parking lot, minding your own business, loading your shopping into the car.

Surprise, shock and chaos erupting around you. You are grabbed by the EMT shoved down onto a stretcher… shopping bags flying everywhere! But then the realisation hits. You are actually just fine. You are happy, healthy, you are smiling even though they man-handled you two seconds ago. Your heart is beating just fine. You don’t need them, but you do need them to collect your shopping bags lying all over the place now.

And that is also the moment you teach them a valuable lesson. You don’t need to beep when you are perfect and ready. And your best will always be enough. But you will also teach them that your best is different too. Some days, your best is just getting out of bed. Some days your best is conquering the world.

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.” This is probably one of the most infamous quotes from Forrest Gump. But because it is so relatable in our everyday situations. Sometimes we have sunshine and birds singing happily while other times we have dark clouds and thunder storms threatening to destroy everything in its path. And this effects our best. We do what we can and use the time and resources we have to do just that, our best.

Your best changes every day, depending on sleep, snacks, and chaos levels. But whatever today’s best looks like, it is totally valid. Show up as you are, not like a perfectly crispy potato chip. And maybe not in pyjamas, which I am currently wearing while writing this…

Minus one beep for not getting dressed yet. But one beep for getting out of bed.

The world will not end when you don’t beep.

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