So I've had Joy in my sights for sometime now. Chasing it at a steady pace slowly closing the gap. But then something happened. I took my eyes off of Joy for just a second and now I can barely see it up ahead. I have never been an athlete but I had the torture, I mean privilege of growing up with one. My brother ran track all the way through school up into college. My dad had been an athlete himself. So I grew up hearing such advice as "consistency is the key" "lean at the end of the race" and "don't wast time looking back for your competition during a race."
Most of this advice is completely lost on me. However it would be in my own best interest to remember to keep my eyes on the finish line and not look back at my competition. Instead of keeping my eyes on Joy recently I've gotten distracted looking at what was going on in the lives of my competitors. OK not really my competitors but at the lives of my friends and family members.
As you all know I am single and looking (now accepting boyfriend applications click here) for Mr. Right. Well the holiday season can be a little tough on single folks. Much of the non-commercial aspects of the holidays are focused on spending time with your family. So I have found myself spending a bit too much time looking back at how my friends and family were doing instead of keeping my eyes on my own Joy. Who is getting their kids what toys, who is spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with their significant other's family, what holiday family portraits will I get in the mail this year, etc,etc, etc...
Suddenly I'm feeling like I wish I had some cute kids to buy cute kid toys for, I wish I had a boyfriend to supply with hints on what I want for Christmas, I wish I had a significant other to invite for Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner and will I have anyone to kiss at New Years??? And then it happened, Joy moving just out of my sights.
So today instead of Chasing Joy I feel like I'm running from loneliness and the green eyed monster of envy. Oh and let me also add hypocrisy. How can I write a blog about Chasing Joy when Joy has definitely been out of my reach lately??? But then I come to my senses and remember why I started Chasing Joy. I did not start Chasing Joy because I have Joy. I started Chasing it because I need it.
None of us are happy all the time. This blog is not an I'm happy all the time don't you want to be happy like me type of blog. This is a life is not fair, sometime it downright sucks, but I'm going to accept it and make an effort to be happy anyway type of blog. Besides, wouldn't it just make you all so annoyed If I only wrote about how happy and positive and upbeat I am??? Don't you relate to me better when I admit to having a bad day or a hard time? Doesn't it remind you that I am actually a person and not just some sort of Joy app?
So, while lately I have a bit of the single during the holidays blues, have been fighting against feelings of loneliness, while viewing the world through the green eye's of envy, I will not get stuck in this place. I will remember that consistency is the key and continue to make myself and what makes me happy a priority even during this season of giving. I will stop waisting time looking at other peoples lives and focus on Joy. I'll catch up to it again. I will also lean at the end of the race??? Oh, wait, I guess that bit of track advice doesn't really apply to me LOL
Do you get down during the holidays? What do you do to feel better? How do you reign yourself in when you are overtaken by the green eyed monster?
