You know, every blog post doesn’t have to be profound.
What if you went to the gym and did the bare minimum?
You don’t need to keep pushing.
Thank God for good friends, coaches and therapy. These messages affirmed what my body was communicating to me all along — I need to slow down.
A month ago, I felt like I was on top of the world. If you read my first blog post, you know that I was drinking water, minding my business (mostly), working out, writing, and following through on all of the commitments I made to myself at the beginning of the year.
It was going great until it wasn’t. After two weeks of going hard in my workouts, daily morning and night routines, writing, house cleaning and organizing, and every other task I was aiming to master, my body became unwell. Initially, I was so frustrated that my body could no longer sustain my toxic productivity. “Asthma is the worst. I used to be able to do all the things,” I kept telling myself.
When I think about it, doing all the things all the time — or at least trying — has led me to where I am now. Tired. Tired of being tired. Tired of falling victim to the repeated cycle of trying to do everything well, succeeding initially, burning out, then nursing myself to health only to become unwell after starting the cycle all over again.
One thing about me, I’m going to try again (shout out to Aaliyah). Except this time I’m trying something different. I’m in my “Bare Minimum Baddie” era, y’all! Granted, I’m only two weeks in, but it’s not bad over here. As a Bare Minimum Baddie, I:
- Prioritize what I want/need to do well instead of trying to be good at everything. This means that sometimes (emphasis on some) there’s laundry that needs to be folded, dishes left in the dishwasher longer than I’d like, and emails/texts left on read.
- Practice showing up, trusting that growth comes with consistency and doesn’t always require me to struggle and push myself. I have been back at OrangeTheory Fitness chilling with my crew of Power Walkers, picking up the lightest weights possible to enable my body to recover and to incentivize me to keep going back to the gym.
- Allow myself to create rough drafts of everything from my writing to my ideas to my bedroom layout, understanding that manifesting my vision lies in (re)vision (shoutout to my coach, Dr. Lacy). Instead of planning everything I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it, I simply do it. Turns out I get more done, which encourages me to continue in moments when I used to get stuck and tap out.
The title is cute, but it feels like being a “Bare Minimum Baddie” contradicts everything I was taught as an Ordinary African Student. I’m in the process of reconciling this. What does it mean to be an ambitious “Bare Minimum Baddie?” Like I said, I’m only two weeks into my journey, so Iike many things in my life right now, I am figuring it out as I go. I will report back with updates!
As always, take good care of yourselves.
With Love and Gratitude,
Mimi