When is just getting by enough? All the time.
A week ago I put up a post about ‘leveling-up’ and ‘doing more’ instead of just ‘getting by’.
A friend of mine called me out, she pointed out that right now (and really always), getting by IS leveling-up for some people and my post could make people feel bad. For someone who ‘aspires not to shame people’ this could be taken the wrong way.
I immediately went on the defense, I wasn’t putting people down for ‘just existing’ but just encouraging them to do more. I had no idea that people could see it this way because this is not what I meant. Remember when we all started working from home almost a year ago? I tried to get in 30-60 mins of workouts everyday because I wanted to do more. I am always someone who wants to put in the extra effort and I encourage others to do the same. Not because I want to compete but because I want to inspire others.
Defensiveness is a toxic quality of mine, I’m self-aware of that, I get extremely defensive when someone calls me out on something where I think I am right. It is something I have been working on it a ton, especially true at work, I really need to stop saying defending myself and saying ‘but…’ or ‘because…’ and just own it. So, I stepped back and looked at it from her perspective. I changed the post, it’s never my intention to make anyone feel bad.
Not everyone is going to like me, that my posts are probably going to rub people the wrong way. I can’t say I will go back and change every post. But I can say that I will work to be more conscious that my words can be taken the wrong way.
Listen…there are days when getting by is all I have in me and I would never want to be put down for that. Case in point: definition of ‘just getting by’ letting your toddler eat leftover wings for breakfast.
