Doing Your OK-est
Have you ever had a dream that that you um that you had
I’ve been very “meh” this week.
What with the completion of my year-long job and the soulless, crushing, seemingly-ineffectual search for another, I just sort of find myself caught in a cycle of late-night LinkedIn applying, sleeping in, and around the clock sweatpants.
Has anyone been there? Sorta looks like this?
It’s not my best look, but yesterday as I was sitting on the couch eating my daily afternoon serving of breakfast sugar-carbs (yes, breakfast in the afternoon, don’t judge) I told myself:
“You’re definitely not doing your best. But you’re doing your OK-est.
I think as humans in the world, and in America especially, we have this obsession with thriving—as if life only earns its value if you show up with 100% of your effort, drive, abilities, and skills to each waking moment.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds exhausting.
It’s not that I think we shouldn’t strive for growth or expand our capacity to learn or commit to evolving or reach for that highest, brightest star.
I just don’t think we should be expected to live in that zone ALL. THE. TIME.
As if “Doing Your Best” is the highest value of personal morality.
As if showing up with whatever energy-percentage-less-than-100-that-you-can-handle is somehow a losing attempt.
As if life should be a video game level of anyone’s worth being determined by how much they try or sweat or bleed.
Plus, sometimes it’s the incessant striving that mucks up the works. We get too attached to outcomes, we burn out, we hold a thing so tightly that we can’t even think straight.
Sort of like this:
His little proud smile at the end. I can’t! I’m dead. Way to go, bud.
Anyway, that’s it! Trying is all cool and great. But your worth is not determined by how hard you try.
Sometimes we’re just doing our OK-est, and that’s OK.
Just wanted you to know that.
XO,
Annie
THREE GOOD THINGS
Now that I tormented you with that precious previous video, please watch this oh-so-satisfying 5 1/2 minute mini-doc about this sweet baby motivational coach, what he thought about his word-salad inspirational speech at the time, and how he would say it now.
Here’s a self-care flow chart if you need some gentle nudges to take care of yourself.
I’m obsessed with this mint/rosemary body spray. It’s like a quick pick-me-up-in-a-bottle for when you want to enliven yourself, or at least when you want to feel minty-fresh as you sit on your couch stress-eating carbs? :shrug::
Needed to hear this today! 🙏🏻❤️
Appreciate this post like all your posts Annie! In a way I think life would be easier if people were like cars. When you (and by "you" I mean people who know stuff about cars, not me) look at a car you can see what its mileage is, how big the engine is, how fast it goes, what kinds of roads it drives best on, whether it takes diesel, unleaded or electricity, whether it has any parts damaged or missing, etc. And you're well aware that different makes serve different purposes for different target markets. It's obvious a Mini can't do some of the stuff an SUV can do, and it's equally obvious that the SUV can't do everything the Mini can do.
Whereas when it comes to people we tend to assume that most of us can, or should, function the same way for the same reasons in the same environments with the same energy level. An endless source of confusion and sadness I think.
Your post actually reminds me a lot of my first Substack post, published a year and a half ago now. Linking in case you're interested :) Best of luck with the job hunt. Been there, it's not easy.
https://smalldarklight.substack.com/p/doing-the-next-best-thing