I wanted to tell you that who you are is good enough. I wanted to say that you shouldn't be content with discontent. But really, I just want you to start where you're at; it's the only place to begin, and if you can do that, then you're on your way to somewhere new. I can't tell you it'll be without setbacks or that you won't find yourself lost half-way there. I certainly can't tell you if it's going to be better than where you are now, but if you don't start--how will you ever know?
So why didn't I choose the other affirmations I mentioned?
Telling yourself that you're good enough as you are is sometimes a good thing; it says that imperfection isn't bad. It says that you can be okay with yourself not being the person you want to be yet. But the problem with telling yourself that you're good enough is that it can lead to complacency in your life. In being okay with being imperfect, we can sometimes slip into a bad habit of thinking that the problem with the world isn't us, but everyone else. And sometimes being okay with who we are right now can lead us to stop believing in a better future for ourselves.
As for not being content with discontent, often this is a good thing, too. It makes us consider our choices and prompts us to keep striving to do better. It can be a catalyst for change. But it can also lead us to believing that everything is within our power to change--that the outside world can be made to conform to our ideal norms when that often isn't the case. More often, the discontent we feel is something that we need to change about ourselves and how we view the events and circumstances in our lives. But this, too, can lead to simply settling for less than what we are capable of achieving.
For example, say you want to lose weight. There are plenty of outside sources in the world willing to give you opinions about the best way to do this, or why you do (or don't,) need to. If we start with the assumption that we are good enough as we are, we may decide to discount information that contradicts this. We might choose, instead, to believe that changing who we are by losing weight is in some way diminishing who we are as a person, and that others should neither judge nor criticize us for the choice we have made. But science tells us that being overweight can lead to adverse health outcomes; we are more prone to disease and may live shorter lives. Conversely, if we're not overweight, but we feel like we are, choosing not to be okay with where we're at can lead people to anorexia or bulimia. So you see that both sides of the coin can become problematic if we don't examine the idea that who we are is good enough.
Looking at the idea of not being content with discontent, let's consider the same issue of weight. In the overweight story, not being contented with our weight can lead to better outcomes over all. It can remind us of our goals and help us to keep striving toward them. But what about those who feel fat but aren't? Choosing to apply the idea that we should not be okay with discontent can again lead to problematic choices like anorexia and bulimia rather than acknowledging that there is a mental or emotional issue that is prompting our discontent--rather than our weight. And that is why it is so important to examine our discontent and make choices that are going to help us rather than harm us.
We need, then, to examine our lives--to understand where we are at, where we long to be, and how we can go about achieving those things. And that is why I chose today's affirmation: start where you're at. Take a look at where you are today--how you're feeling, what you want to accomplish, where you want to be versus where you are. And then consider how you want to go about achieving those things in your life. Do you want to just jump right in? Do you want to set aside some time to plan? Do you not even know what your goals are yet? Whatever the case may be, it's important to have a starting point--and that point is now, here, this moment, and you.
So today, start.
Start where you're at.
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