Cut yourself some slack

I’m about 2 months away from heading to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago. It’s a really exciting time of planning & preparing & shopping for gear. Love that last part especially!

This morning I made what’s probably one of the most key decisions: 

I’m going to cut myself some slack. 

This might not sound like much, but believe me, it’s huge. 

During my training, I aggravated one of my glutes and it hurts all the time. So I’m getting treatment for it and babying it as much as I can. It got me worrying about being able to walk the full path with my pack. I’ve trained with 20 pounds for months, but now I can’t carry that comfortably. 

 A previous version of me would think that I have to carry my full pack (whatever that will weigh) all 500+ miles in order for my effort to truly count. Otherwise it’ll always have an asterisk next to it, like baseball records that become tainted in some way. The player still holds the record, but it’s not fully appreciated or acknowledged. 

I’m not buying into that any longer.  

I’ve decided that if I need to use one of the many courier services that will transport my pack from one town to another, I’m gonna do that. If that’s what it takes so I can complete the journey, then that’s what it takes. Period. No asterisk, no feeling like I cheated or didn’t really do it. 

Where might you be holding yourself to an unnecessarily high standard? Do you feel like you have to be the only one to deliver your services to your clients? Or write your newsletter yourself every week? What’s your version of someone else carrying your pack? Perhaps it’s time to hand that weight over to someone else.