“Never try to be better than someone else.  But never stop working to become your best self.”  John Wooden

Happy Monday, folks.  “Ackkkkk! Monday!” you may be screaming (silently, I hope), but don’t fret.  It’s Monday-back-to-work-after-the-weekend-day.  Back to an environment where you may be stuck in a mental rut doing something a lot of us do: expending lots of energy comparing yourself to someone else.  Do you do this? Do you compare yourself to lots of someone elses? One particular someone else? Something else?  To some unrealistic version of yourself you’d be if you never slept, ate, took care of your kids, yourself, or wiped your butt?

If you answered yes to one – or all – of the above, please stop it.

Take a deep breath.  Yes, draw a breath in, all the way down to your belly, hold it there for a moment, then release it.  Try that again.  Like ten more times.

Have you calmed down? I hope so. <smile> Now that you’ve slowed your breathing down, that chinchilla wheel inside your head should have slowed down a bit, too.  You have nothing to be anxious about this week even if you have a huge project due – I swear.  Because no matter what, whether in the office, the hospital, in the field, or at home, all you need to do is be you.  Maybe this is too simple?  I dunno.  I think it works.  When all else fails, and you feel your stress rising, just chill out, roll with it, and remember you only have to be you.  Sure, try to be a better you – in a sense – each day, but certainly don’t try to be a better someone else.  Ya know?

That’s about all I got for Monday.  It’s 2am and I need to go to bed.  And I leave you with a Semper Sarah quotable: “The more time you spend comparing yourself to someone else, the less time you spend becoming who you want to be.”

Peace out 😉