Per ā¢ fec ā¢Ā tion
N. a quality, trait, or feature of the highest degree of excellence.
When I started this process, I went a little manic. Donāt get me wrong, thereās nothing bad about shooting for the stars and expecting good things from yourself. Itās like baking a cake and not expecting it to taste like shit. I like striving for the best, and to be the best that I can be.
Something similar happened to me during the summer of the pandemic, where I bought myself a Chillyās rose gold chrome brand-spaking-new 500ml water bottle for Ā£20, and told myself that I will drink four of those a day to make sure that I stay hydrated. Iād love to say that I stuck to that during the entirety of lockdown, my skin was plump and bouncy, I felt my digestion work to the max and that I never went a day without skipping water. Though, the reality was that, for three weeks, I drank four, then three, then two bottles of water, and the bottle is currently sitting on my glasses shelf with mould growing because I didnāt air it out. In 2018 I signed up for a gym membership and went five times a week, drank protein shakes like they were water and gained some, without boasting, pretty sick arms. My gym membership is now on hold, mostly due to the pandemic, but my healthy eating habits also disappeared. I loved feeling healthy and hydrated, but I am currently sitting on the sofa and munching down on a McDonaldās with my partner because UberEats gave us a 30% discount. Weāre also dipping the fries into the milkshake because, my god, thatās delicious. As I said before, I find it hard to stick to habits.
Sus ā¢ tain ā¢ a ā¢ bi ā¢ li ā¢ ty
n.
a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals for future generations
Thatās why I kind of wanted to write this post; there will be full transparency on this blog, and I will start with admitting that Iāve been slipping recently with my phone use. I havenāt done much today that brings me genuine joy, as we have had a stressful day with our flat wrecking the entire building with a leakage. Our agency hasnāt been very helpful, which is great. And with that, I wanted to pacify myself with mindless scrolling on social media and spiralled into an Instgram reel for about an hour.Ā
I suppose, as human beings, itās difficult to control our urges when we feel stressed and tired and on our periods, as I am now. I honestly just want to crawl into bed in a fetal position and watch Instagram reels. I cried at Kung Fu Panda 2 last night for godās sake. But I cannot let that stop me, and I will try and try again. And if you start again doesnāt mean youāve failed. Itās not realistic or sustainable to expect a perfect minimalist life after two weeks of deciding that youāre going cold turkey. I want to explore this a little further, but itās not reasonable to expect people to just get rid of all social media, as it has been proposed by Cal Newport in Digital Minimalism. Itās hard, and itās okay for it to be hard because getting rid of a few yearsā worth of habit is difficult. And itās okay for things to be difficult. Thatās part of the adventure!
See you soon,
Billie
