I’ve been noticing some disturbing comments in the online world of real food. They don’t occur often, but I’ve seen a few of them recently, and I have to say it doesn’t sit right with me. Here’s an example of one comment I ran across:
"In my opinion, you have to be all or nothing about natural health."
Once you get into the all-or-nothing mentality, you lose perspective and start trying to achieve perfection. This kind of thinking will trap you in one of two ways: either you’ll become an ego-maniac who fiercely denies the possibility of having flaws or being wrong, or you’ll become incredibly discouraged and just give up altogether. Frankly, neither of these outcomes is a good thing. So the only solution is to throw the all-or-nothing mentality right out the window!
Being healthy is not all or nothing. Life is not all or nothing. Nobody’s that perfect. Nobody can actually do it all. And that’s perfectly fine.
We don’t need to do it all, we just need to do all we can - whatever that means at any given moment.
This blog is about bridging the gap between real food and real people. And real people mess up. A lot. Some days we’ll feel like super heroes that can conquer any obstacle that besets us. Other days we might feel like wallowing in a well of self-pity (and a carton of ice cream if we’re really feeling down). The point is you are going to mess up sometimes. You’re going to eat that brownie when you’re trying to go sugar free. You’re going to miss that morning jog. You’re going to go to bed late and miss out on some much-needed sleep. It’s going to happen.
My point is not that we should be cynical pessimists or give up on trying, but that we should embrace the fact that nobody - not us or anyone else - is perfect. This adage pretty much sums it up:
"It’s not how often you fall down, but how quickly you get back up."
So don’t sit around beating yourself up about every time you fall down - just hop back up and try again. That’s how all successful people do it. Successful people aren't extraordinarily flawless--they get where they want to go because they just keep trying no matter how many times they get it wrong.
And while the topic of the link below may be somewhat sappy and overdone, it can still be helpful for remembering we’re all human. Whether or not you admire all of the people mentioned there, it’s hard to deny they all had a great sense of persistence:
But They Did Not Give Up
This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.
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