Sitting in the cafe of the cruise ship, an older women, all smiles walked by. When she passed I noticed the back of her shirt said, “Living my best life”.
I started to think about the phrase as I sat staring at the sign rise over the water. Am I doing this?
At this very moment, I couldn’t think of a better place to be. I am floating across the Caribbean sea on the way to Aruba. Honestly, life is pretty good right this moment. And in the spirit of living in the moment, yes I am living my best life.
I am here to celebrate 25 years married to the man I fell in love with when I was still a teenager! Not too many people can say this. We have four incredible children. Two of which are currently hanging out with us.
Life is incredibly good right now.
But before I saw her shirt, I was thinking about a picture taken of my husband and I at the “fancy” dinner night on the ship. I was shocked to see how much weight I had gained and how old I looked. My husband looked his normal cute self. To tell the truth, it was probably a good picture of the two of us and I should probably buy it.
But, I couldn’t get beyond seeing myself. I didn’t look like someone living my best life. I looked like a person who wasn’t taking care of herself. I looked like someone who was eating through her stress. Someone who wasn’t going to the gym in the morning, even though I know I really want to.
Was I really the person I saw in the picture? Do I really want to the be the person in the picture?
As I sit here this morning, I know the answer to those questions is yes, I am the person in the picture and yet I am not. I am someone who wants to be living an authentic life of really living my best life.
Which means the trips to the vending machine at work need to end. It means I will go to the gym in the morning and get my morning runs in. It means I will start strength training again. It means I will pack my lunch when I go to work, so I don’t consume extra calories. It means I will be the woman smiling when I finish Nashville half marathon in April at 2:30! I will be the sweaty woman at yoga class. I will be the woman taking photographs during the day. I will be the woman running a successful business, helping others run their own successful businesses.
That will be me living my best life. The life I was created to live.
But for today, I will be the woman who when I hit the shores of Aruba, I will have run and taken a class with my daughter. I will have finished writing a blog post for my business. I will have set a few things in motion. I will live my very best life today. And will strive to do the same thing tomorrow and tomorrows tomorrow.
Learning to live my best life, one day at a time. So over the course of the rest of my life, I can say I did live my best life.