Momentum...for my friend...

Is it just me who finds it so hard to keep up momentum? I feel as if this is a modern malaise that afflicts women of my age. I think I am not alone...

With so much access to information (Internet, blog, twitter, facebook blah blah) I am so utterly well informed about all the things I should be doing. I notice this particularly, as I just bought my baby nephew an encyclopedia for his christening gift. An antiquated gift! When I was a child there was an encyclopedia in the house that we used to check things in. I can remember that shuffle of countless pages as my Mum would look up and cancel out the likelihood of some obscure childhood illness like Scarlet Fever. Or my brother would use it to prove a point about some general knowledge tidbit that he knew and I didn't. Or on really idle days I would just pick a page and read it just for the hell of it; after all knowledge is power. I used to have this thirst for knowledge that could only be found in books. I am sure this is why I find libraries so comforting; I truly believe that books hold the answer to all.

And yet now there is the web...everything I need to know about life is just a google click away...

And so a slightly retro gift for my nephew and the realisation for me that anything can be found online so there is almost no need for an encyclopedia! But with all of this information comes the responsibility of doing what is right.

I know for example that I should eat healthily. I go through faddish phases (remember the juice diet anyone?) where I get super-healthy, reap the rewards, feel pious when choosing ingredients and am generally in a 'my body is a temple' mode. Then I fall off the wagon as I simply loose momentum for whatever it was I was aspiring to that week. No yeast diet. No salt diet. No nothing diet. It's not weight loss, its health. Like the elixir of life, I think the answer to many ailments is in food. I just wish I could convert myself to actually maintain the momentum and stay healthy.

Similarly, fitness. I know, especially at the moment as I am not working, that I should be maximising what I do with my body. I should be running and training and cycling and getting outside. Breathing in the fresh air. I should be exploring yoga and Pilate's and building my 'inner core'. I should be tending to my weakened muscles and making myself better. I know the merits of this; I read about them all the time, yet somehow I can't keep it up. Why is this?!

Take personal grooming; those women you see who are immaculate; whose nails are done and whose hair is kept and who put us all to shame. Every and any woman can be like that, there is nothing to stop us. Of course financially the pursuit of grooming can be draining, but there are ways to do it. Yet I have spurts of action where I get myself together, closely followed by times of slovenly ways and chipped nails.

via atlantic pacific

Another example is dealing with my children. I try to maintain the standards of a harmonious home life, I read self-help books on bringing up confident children who can take on the world. I try and try to make it all build towards a greater good and I know in myself that the harder I work at it, the better they do. Case in point: reading at bedtime. A necessary and honourable activity that every family should make paramount. It's something I refuse to let drop, but some nights I am guilty of choosing a thin book; one with fewer words and more pictures, in the knowledge that it will be over sooner and I can retire to that glass of wine.

via everyday musings

Are our standards just way too high? (Yes, I know, I can already predict your lovely comments saying I am too hard on myself; that seems to be my theme song!) If we had all the time in the world would we manage to keep momentum and make everything happen perfectly?

via home

I have a good friend who is about to take a year out of her normal life to be on a Sabbatical. Her head is filled with the possibilities; of the options that could present themselves over that year. It has been long awaited and I know that her objective, rightly or wrongly, is to be a better person after it. Especially a better mother, but ultimately a better her. I wish her every bit of luck on this year out and I know she will get lots out of it. But what will intrigue me the most is whether she can keep the momentum up? Here's to having the gumption to keep going! I  have a feeling she will...