Hope is in the Hard Stuff

There is no magic pill or drink or patch for anything.  

It all comes down to hard work and consistency.  Anyone who tells you differently is lying, maybe not maliciously, but it’s still lying.    

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was?  If the pills worked, if the soups, the drinks, the patches, the creams… if it all worked?  You used the products and weight came off, the wrinkles reversed, the cellulite disappeared, it all was just exactly how you wanted it.  

Wouldn’t it be nice?  

Or would it?  

You would still be you and I’d still be me.  We’d be the perfect picture of ourselves.  There would be no effort to look our best.  It would just happen.  

Would that be enough?  Looking perfect?

While the thought of having overnight success in areas of aesthetics like weight loss, looking younger, having perfectly manicured nails and hair is very appealing it also loses some of the magic that happens when you put effort into something. 

When you have a hard workout and you finish it you feel accomplished.  When you put effort into your hair and it turns out just like the picture, when you paint your nails and let them dry completely before doing anything else, when you change your nutrition and you see the difference in your skin and body there is a feeling of pride that bubbles up.  A sincere form of happiness is growing and hope to recreate that magic begins to build.   

Not only that but what about the inside?  What about the messy feelings of life?  If what really matters is on the inside why are we focused on getting the outside to be perfected.   

It seems to be out of balance.  You might look gorgeous around the clock but what’s happening on the inside, in your heart, is still shining through.  

And we will ride that imbalance out until we completely crumble.  

Why?  What’s so bad about being real?  What’s so bad about having wrinkles, or gray hair, a few pounds to lose, some cellulite?  

Nothing.  Nothing is bad about it.  

It just happens to be where you are in life at the  moment.  Because you have a few pounds, a few wrinkles, a head of gray hair, that is not a blight on your character.  That means you have enjoyed life, you have lived, maybe overindulged, maybe neglected for a time, but that can be corrected and there is still tons of enjoyment to be had.  

If the only hope we have is to be perfect so we can be accepted then we have no hope at all.  You will never be perfect.  But having no hope??  That simply will not do!

The hope is in the hard work, not the easy out.  The hope is in a commitment to yourself and keeping it even when things get difficult.  The hope is in being loved and loving yourself nowhere near perfect.  The hope is in accepting who and where you are and making goals to get where you want to be.   

You don’t have to be perfect to be loved or to love yourself.  Part of what is beautiful is our differences,  our experiences, our perspective.  Part of what we share with our friends and families, strangers on the internet, anyone who will listen are things we love, things we do, things that work.  

When we share these things it’s because we had a problem and now we’ve found a bridge to get past that problem.  It gives hope to the people who were in the same position that you found something that works.  Maybe I’ll give it a try too.  It means so much less when the information comes from someone who seems to have no problems at all, no hardship, no compassion or experience in where you might be. 

All this to say the easy, overnight success does nothing to bring you hope.  

Let me draw the line more clearly for you.  If your wrinkle cream that cured you of all your wrinkles in one day suddenly doesn’t work one day where does that leave you?  

Back to hopeless and hiding.  

If your weight loss pills stop working (and please, don’t take these, they’re truly terrible for you) and you pack back on all the weight you lost, where does that leave you?  

Back to hopeless and hiding.  Why?  Because you don’t have any tools that you need to get back to where you wanted without the quick fix.  

The truth is quick fixes don’t stay fixed…  As quickly as they came on they disappear.  But if you put in work, learn how to care for yourself, take time to hear your feelings and thoughts, disprove the doubt, shut down the negative, no matter if your weight changes, your hair changes, your skin changes you have the tools to deal with it and how it makes you feel.  You have the ability to learn to love yourself without being perfect.  You grow comfortable in the work.  You look forward to the positive changes you can make and accept what you can’t.  You have hope for tomorrow because tomorrow get to be you, not stuck being you.  

You are you and that’s all that you have to be.  Put the work in on yourself because you love yourself not because you hate yourself, in order to be the best version of yourself.  

Drop the quick fix, quite worrying about how the world sees you and put in the real work, to see yourself in a way you love. Hope is found in doing the hard.