Hello Beautiful Supporters and Comrades in Arms,

I am so sorry that I have not posted a goals entry in a while. Truth be told, I was starting to get a little overwhelmed with all the goals and each one culminating was stressing me out a bit. I had the best intentions with establishing weekly goal setting but as each week’s goal piled itself on to the other week’s goals I was starting to feel a bit like an amateur juggler. I could not wrap my head around doing everything at the same time. I started to get worried that if I threw another ball in the air, somehow all the others would come crashing down. I am still working through the best way to orchestrate this blog and this journey, so I appreciate you sticking by me and continuing to check in and support me! In the interest of “taking some pressure off” and reflecting on how far I have come, as opposed to how much further I have to go, I decided the best goal for this week would be “Self Love.”

Self love is something that I often struggle with and an area of my life where I can definitely improve. I know for me, a lot of this lack of “love” comes from my inability to accept myself fully because I am so unhappy with such a large (no pun intended) aspect of my existence, my size. I have learned however (through many incredible mentors and inspirational peers) that to really make change in my life, I have to begin by truly loving myself now, just as I am, in this very moment. The barometer with which I ordinarily base my happiness is circumstantial and often based on other people’s opinions or ability to accept and love me. I don’t think that I am alone in this approach,  however this type of love is based in the ego and is not a reliable way to judge self-worth. This way of thinking is fragile and not sustainable. If I can successfully find love and appreciation for myself, not based on the opinions or approval of others, but out of an inherent faith in myself and acknowledging my strength and abilities, I believe it will positively impact the decisions that I make and consequently the goals that I achieve.This is certainly something that will be a lifelong practice and discipline and something that I am sure I will be working on for a while but want to begin working towards this practice this week. So, as a first step towards this process, I am going to focus on eliminating negative thoughts and judgments of myself. When they do show up I am going to work on finding ways to replace them with positive thoughts and self compassion.

How have you been doing on your goals? Do you also find that it is overwhelming to pile on a new goal each week or do you have any suggestions for how I can orchestrate setting new goals without getting overwhelmed by the stacking of the goals that I am creating?

Thanks again for checking in and I would love to hear from you in the comments section below!

xoxo,
Chelsey