“If I don’t take care of myself, who will?”
What a great question to ask ourselves as we go through our day-to-day living.
We are always making choices…even the choice to not choose on purpose, based on what matters to us, is a choice.
Each moment of the day, we are arriving at a fork in the road. The path on the left looks wide open and free from obstacles. It is the easier one to take, at least at first. It’s the path that contains all the habits and behaviors that in the end don’t serve us well. But because the path is well-worn, we tend to head in that direction.
The right path may have some obstacles in it, some challenges that require effort and commitment, but the right path leads us to things we most desire.
But because we can imagine the obstacles and the effort it would take to get by them, we tend to shuffle over to the left path, which is wide open and clear, forgetting that it never takes us to where we really want to go.
Should I eat the healthy food or just grab some fast food that I know in my heart is not good for me? (Imagine a bowl of fresh fruit on the right and on the left is chips, ice cream and your favorite junk food…which one will you reach for?)
Should I get some exercise or just keep mindlessly watching a Netflix series that I don’t even really care about?
Should I take time to meditate and practice some form of self-care, or should I just keep being available to the demands and whims of others? Should I just keep accumulating stress throughout my day and end up having poor quality of sleep because I’m still wound up?
Should I focus on this present moment and take actions that are in alignment with my freely chosen life values, or should I just keep hanging out in my head, replaying old arguments, ruminating about things that didn’t work out well, and frightening myself with what awful thing could happen at some point in the future?
When we get encouragement or validation from others, it feels good, doesn’t it? What happens if they don’t deliver on any given day? We can feel pretty depressed, overwhelmed and under-loved, right?
If you could live your life independent of the good opinion of other people, would you choose that?
If you could be less in your head and be more engaged in living your life as it is happening, would you choose that?
If you knew that you were the only one who can take care of yourself in all the different aspects of your life at all times, would you choose to do that?
It would be great if other people would take care of us, be 100% reliable, always respectful and constantly going out of their way to make sure that we felt safe, loved and happy, but how realistic is that based on your experience?
If don’t take care of myself, who will? The answer seems pretty clear…no one will.
Even those people who do love you and care about you cannot do for you the things that only you can do.
At each moment of every day, you are either choosing the well-worn path that leads where you don’t want to go, or choosing the right path of doing those things that lead in the direction of living the life you really want.
You don’t have to wait for the cavalry to arrive to save the day…… You are the cavalry!
You don’t have to wait and hope for the hero to come along and save you…. You are the hero!
“If I don’t take care of myself, who will?”
