Your Checklist Doesn’t Equal Your Worthiness
Month of Clarity | InvestedStack
Just recently I spent hours of a day believing (and worrying) I hadn’t done enough.
I had a list. A long list.
A plan.
A vision for how the day was supposed to go.
Instead...
My car started having issues.
I was carrying concern for my roommate after a difficult night.
I woke up around 3:00 a.m. and didn’t really settle back to sleep until after 6:00.
My children were having a difficult day.
My body is approaching the end of my cycle, which means the familiar combination of fatigue, interrupted sleep, and a nervous system asking for gentleness instead of grit.
By the afternoon, I found myself asking a question that I know many of us ask:
How am I ever supposed to build something meaningful if I struggle to get myself together on days like this?
It wasn’t until I slowed down enough to actually look at the day that I realized I had been measuring the wrong thing.
The Work I Didn’t Count
I taught my yoga class.
One student needed laughter, conversation, and permission to simply arrive exactly as she was.
Another discovered that placing her feet on a chair while lying on her back gave her hips exactly what they had been asking for. She smiled and said, “I really don’t want to get up.”
I understood.
Earlier in the day, I realized I couldn’t fulfill a chair yoga commitment because of another obligation.
Instead of simply canceling, I reached out to people in my community.
About ten people immediately responded.
Some didn’t teach chair yoga. Some didn’t even know someone directly.
But nearly every person tried to connect me with someone who could help.
That surprised me.
For a long time, I’ve carried a story that I don’t really have community like that.
All this reminded me that community doesn’t always look like talking every day.
Sometimes community looks like someone saying, “I don’t have the answer, but let me see who I know.”
That feels like love.
Maybe I Was Measuring the Wrong Work
As I reflected on the day, I realized something else. I kept telling myself I hadn’t accomplished what I planned and therefore I hadn’t accomplished anything at all.
But that wasn’t actually true.
The work simply looked different than I expected.
I adapted.
I taught.
I cared for my students.
I protected my professional commitments by finding someone else who could help.
I asked for support.
I received support.
I honored my Friday intention of being community-focused, even though it looked nothing like I imagined when I woke up.
None of those things were on my checklist.
Every one of them mattered greatly.
