Perfection is unattainable, and that's perfectly fine. This episode peels back the layers of pressure we face to excel at everything, replacing it with a heart-to-heart about the true essence of self-compassion. Join me as I candidly share the epiphany that has reshaped my approach to personal wellness, food, & fitness and how it can profoundly impact your life too.
Embarking on the path to a healthier, more confident self is akin to learning a new instrument—it's all about the incremental victories and the learning curve. Forget the pursuit of perfection; let's celebrate every small win and learn from the missteps. I encourage you to persist with intention, embracing the stumbles as part of your growth. Tune in for a dose of reality and empowerment that will inspire you to keep pushing forward, armed with self-compassion and unshakeable purpose.
Perfection is unattainable, and that's perfectly fine. This episode peels back the layers of pressure we face to excel at everything, replacing it with a heart-to-heart about the true essence of self-compassion. Join me as I candidly share the epiphany that has reshaped my approach to personal wellness, food, & fitness and how it can profoundly impact your life too.
Embarking on the path to a healthier, more confident self is akin to learning a new instrument—it's all about the incremental victories and the learning curve. Forget the pursuit of perfection; let's celebrate every small win and learn from the missteps. I encourage you to persist with intention, embracing the stumbles as part of your growth. Tune in for a dose of reality and empowerment that will inspire you to keep pushing forward, armed with self-compassion and unshakeable purpose.
You're not that great, and I say that, sister, in the most loving way. Yo, this is something that's been on my mind. Look, I know that we all are constantly judging ourselves in the worst way possible, right, possible, not a word. But you understood what I was trying to say there. We judge ourselves even right there. I could have been like oh my gosh, this is terrible. I'm awful. I should not be speaking on a podcast. I'm going to turn this off and never do this, ever again. I could do that, or I could just be like doesn't everybody mess up words a lot? And if you don't and you're perfect, we're probably not meant to be friends anyway. So you can just move on to the perfect podcaster, because it ain't here. I digress, but now I'm totally lost.
Danielle La Rose:
What was I actually talking about? I'm here to talk about something that's really been Okay. I know what to talk about. I'm here to share with something that's been on my mind, and that is that, yes, I know that we need to hype ourselves up. I'm your hype girl, I am your hype woman, I am the most turn up. Let's like empower ourselves. Let's, you know, push ourselves up. Let's make ourselves the most confident. Let's talk ourselves up, let's celebrate ourselves. I am here for all of that, so you will always get that from me. I also have to remind myself that I suck at some things, and you do too, and that is okay. We do not owe ourselves or anyone else perfect. We do not have to, you know, just think that we're the best and most perfect at everything. And you're probably like me sitting there thinking, yo, I don't think I'm good at anything and I'm going to, just as your friend, just like kind of slap you across your face and like a friendly little tap way to be like wake up. You have so many strengths and so many skills and so many talents that the world is so grateful to have you here. That's one part of it. The other part is what, if you know? Think about it. Have you ever?
Danielle La Rose:
I have never played the guitar before. Okay, if I go, and I've never even like picked one up. I've never held one, I've never like messed with strings, I've never done any of that. So if I tried, if I was like okay, listen, I know what I should do, right, I can look at music. Someone can teach me how to do it. I can. I should be able to pick it up, move the strings, make a sound, make some music, right.
Danielle La Rose:
But what happens? The first time that I pick up the guitar? I'm probably going to drop it because it's large. I'm probably going to hit the wrong string, I'm probably going to hit some strings, and I don't know how guitars work. Okay, I've played the flute for a very long time and I can tell you, if you pick up the flute for the very first time, even to this day, if I pick up a flute and I just barely move it like a quarter of an inch the wrong way, you ain't making no sound. No sound is coming out. Okay, so it's probably the same with the guitar If I move a little string or something, it's probably not even going to work.
Danielle La Rose:
I don't know how to play, and so I can be real and raw and honest with myself and be like sister, you ain't good, you ain't good at that, you ain't got the skills for that, you ain't got none of that. But guess what? If you want to, you can, because there are lots of people in the world that have learned how to play the guitar. So, in fact, if you want to, you can. If you desire to actually be good, you can learn, you can play, but you got to practice over and over and over again and eventually you will get it, even though you pick it up and you're like I should be able to do this because I know how to do it. I've seen people do it, I've heard it.
Danielle La Rose:
Now I want you to think about something like your health and fitness. How many times have you said I should be able to do this? I know that I'm supposed to eat healthy. I know that I'm supposed to work out. I know what to do. It's simple, it's so straightforward. I should be able to do it. What's wrong with me? Why can't I do it? How come I show up on day one and it's this hard, or I don't even show up at all? And what is wrong with me? And I want you to ask yourself can you instead say maybe I just don't have the skills for this yet, but if I desire to, I actually can develop them?
Danielle La Rose:
Why is it that we so often are willing to practice something like a guitar in order to get great, but when it comes to our health and wellness or it comes to our body image, we instantly think that the day one we should be able to figure it out and we should be able to, by the end of day one, just know exactly and have a system and have a schedule and have a plan and eat the foods and do the workouts and love our bodies and look in the mirror and love how we look and yada, yada, yada. Why is it that everything else in our life we get to say it's going to take practice? You tell your children, if they want to be great at basketball, if they want to be great at dance, if they want to play the guitar, they have to practice. They got to get a coach, they got to join a team. They got to learn the skills. They got to put in more time. They got to put in more effort. They got to shoot more hoops. They got to do more turns. They got to leap higher. You know they have to keep leaping until eventually it gets higher.
Danielle La Rose:
And yet, when it comes to you and me and our health and wellness, it's never allowed to be practiced. We think that it's not a skill to be able to show up to your workout on a consistent basis. We think that it's not a skill to develop healthy eating habits. We think that it's whoops. We think that it's not a skill, right? We think that, duh, it's supposed to just happen when we decide it happens. We show up day one and it happens day two, it happens again, day three, it happens again. But what if?
Danielle La Rose:
Instead, if you find yourself at a point where you're constantly frustrated and angry and stressed out about food and fitness and bodies and all of the things I want you to ask yourself, can I approach this in a way that is all about practicing and saying, yeah, I'm not great at this, I'm not great at this, yet I don't have the skills yet I haven't had enough time yet to have the meal plan that makes my body feel great, to follow the workout schedule that actually empowers me and makes me feel confident, to be consistent in the actions that I desire to take. So maybe I'm not skilled yet, maybe right now I suck at my health and fitness. But guess what? If I want to be great, if I want those goals bad enough, if I want to truly be that healthy, competent, powerful version of myself, then I get to practice, I get to develop that skill, I get to show up and over and over and over again, and I'm going to make mistakes. I'm going to Make funny sounds, right, I'm going to make different choices. I'm going to miss some practices I'm going right at. But at the end of the day, that is my desire and so I did.
Danielle La Rose:
I am choosing To develop that skill of becoming that healthy, confident version of myself that makes healthy choices consistently, without doubt stress and worry. And every day that I Practice that, every day that I work on a new skill for that whether it's choosing the veggie or showing up to the workout or shifting my mindset, or it's Joining a team or working with a coach or whatever it is Every day I'm saying no, I'm not, I'm not perfect at that, and that's okay. And I get to work on the skills of my health and wellness and my confidence and my body image. So that way, one day I will say I got this almost perfect, I got these skills and you can be really, really proud of yourself. But guess what? You don't have to wait till then.
Danielle La Rose:
You get to be proud of yourself today when you show up, aren't you proud of your kid? When they show up to basketball practice, they miss all the shots, they make one and you're like, oh my god, you're the best. How? When was the last time you celebrated yourself for just making one shot? We don't have to celebrate ourselves at the end, by the way. There ain't no end. This is a continuous thing. Health and wellness, you know well. There ain't no end. There ain't no finish line.
Danielle La Rose:
You just keep going, and that's why we get to develop this skill and we get to keep practicing without punishing ourselves with the I should have, I could have, and Instead saying I'm practicing skills to get better at becoming this version of myself and I'm going to celebrate every small win along the way. So, yes, you may suck I suck at plenty of things but if we desire to get better, we can make the choice. We can hire the coach, we can join the team, we can show up to practice, we can make mistakes and we can keep moving forward to develop the skills to live that life that we truly desire. So are you on board with this? Of from now on, when you say I should have done that or I could have done that, we say, hmm, okay, I just I haven't fully developed the skills yet that I desired to have To really live this life. What can I do?
Danielle La Rose:
Here's a question I want you to ask yourself, today and every day moving forward what can I do? What action can I take to practice the skill and that will help develop that lifestyle that I desire and Start right there. All right, with that, my friend, I'm out because you ain't got time to just listen to a whole bunch of stuff. I want you to go out into this world. I want you to start practicing. I want you to develop those skills and truly, truly be proud of yourself for moving forward, for not shitting on yourself and For really taking every single step to becoming that confident version of yourself. You are pretty powerful. Now go prove it to yourself. Let's go.
