Original and prints available here.
Life can feel like a high wire act. You’re doing your best to juggle everything on your plate: your job, your family, your finances; and just when you think everything is going pretty well, you glance down and see someone whose yard looks way better than yours. How do they get those flowers to flourish like that? Or someone’s kids who are in way more activities than yours. Will my kids be less attractive to colleges? Or someone who just drove up in their new car. Should I be thinking about getting a better job?
For instance, my neighbor cuts his grass every six minutes. Okay, maybe it only seems like that. It’s probably more like sixteen. The point is, a perfect lawn is apparently important to him. I’m not here to judge, except I often do judge — myself.
Our lawn usually looks pretty shaggy compared to his, especially if it’s been more than a week since we cut our grass. And the fact that we hire that out makes me self conscious. Does he think I’m less of a man because I don’t cut my own grass? Does he think we think we’re better than him because we hire someone to do it for us? Do the neighbors see our weak landscaping game and think our house is bringing down the home values in the neighborhood? It’s kind of embarrassing to say all this out loud, because I have no reason at all to think anyone is thinking any of this, but it does pop into my head when I lose focus on what matters to me.
I appreciate a nice lawn, but I value the extra time to spend with my family. One of the reasons I work so hard on my business is so I can spend more time doing what I love and pay for someone else to do the things I hate.
Please understand that I’m not saying my way is the best one. After all, my neighbor friend is retired with kids who are grown. He has a lot more time to spend on keeping up his lawn. For all I know, it might be a therapeutic escape for him. It’s like comparing apples and mangosteens. Which is completely my point.
Television and magazines are filled with examples of people who seem to have it all together. They gracefully glide through life as the perfect mom, perfect wife, and perfect employee.
It’s all a facade. We don’t ever know the whole story, whether it’s the celebrity with the flawless teeth or the neighbor right next door. We all have different priorities and are fighting different battles (which often stay hidden from the the camera’s lens or our surface level observations.)
I’m not here to tell you what’s important to you. I’m just here to remind you that it can’t ALL be.
The people who are running around like chickens with their head cut off trying to keep up with an impossible standard of balancing everything perfectly are making a huge mistake. Not only is such a standard impossible to attain, they’re allowing the busyness to distract them from what’s most important.
The people who are doing life right are the ones who are mindful of what kind of life they want to live and are focused on that.
How do you tackle life like a boss?
Stay focused on what’s most important to you. Ignore the rest.
Original and prints available here.
I’m lucky, very few people can see into my yard – I’m down a ROW and I’m surrounded by 6′ wooden fences…and most of the houses are on one level, so they are not peering down from another story.
My yard needs a lot of attention, but as I’m in a private rental, I don’t imagine I will ever be bothered to strip it out, level it and then reseed it :-)
What I love about my place is that privacy and most of the day silence, as most of my neighbours go off to work :-)