focus 2016: enough

Over the past few days I've covered my focuses of family, faith, and wellness for 2016. Today, we'll dive into my final focus: enough.

This one is fairly straightforward. Simply, I am enough, I do enough, I have enough.

It's easy to feel like you you aren't enough - not productive enough, not fun enough, not thin enough, not (whatever it is) enough. Living that way, like you are never enough, is exhausting.

I know in my heart that not enough is a lie, but in this world of edited everything, it is easy to feel like everyone else has it figured out - their hair always looks great, their outfits are on point, their kids look adorable in their coordinated outfits as they play together happily, their marriage looks easy breezy, and they seem to always be out doing so many fun things. We all fall victim to the comparison game at some point. We tell ourselves that we should do more, accomplish more, that our to-do list should have more things checked off at the end of the day. We try to keep up.

This year, I want to let go of keeping up because I am enough, I do enough.

I am committed to remembering that my life is good, we are blessed with many beautiful things, a warm and safe home, loving family, and the ability to have interesting experiences. Truly, that is more than enough.

In addition to committing to a mantra of "enough", I have kicked off the year with something my family calls "no-spend January". This month, I have chosen to purchase nothing outside of necessities: groceries, gas, food, and sundries. So far, I am on track. I tend to justify purchases fairly easily and this has already forced me to be more mindful about what I actually need, or even want. Yes, that sweater is lovely but if I really, really want it, I'll still want it in February and can purchase it then if it's still available. Chances are, I won't have thought about that sweater again. We are lucky to have many things and constantly accumulating more won't make our lives better, just more cluttered. Life is about more than things. We have enough. I anticipate that I will struggle with this a bit as the month progress so please wish me luck.

So this year, as you go about your days, I hope you remember with me that you too have enough, you do enough, and you are enough, you beautiful people.

Here concludes the Focus 2016 series - I hope you've enjoyed hearing about my focuses for the year. I'll update you every so often as I go along. Please feel free to share your goals, resolutions, or focuses for this year with me, I'd love to hear what you're taking on in 2016.