Y’all, I’m tired.

I’ve been traveling for the past three weeks, we’ve been playing tummy bug / cold+flu season whackamole, and I feel like I’m behind on every front.

I’m on a seemingly unstoppable downward spiral.

But yesterday I was listening to this episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast and heard about an incredible concept from the woman Mel was interviewing, Dr. Judith Joseph. Dr. Joseph was sharing her Five Vs Framework, one of which was Vitals. Every night she asks her daughter ‘how many bodies did God give you?’ and of course the answer is ONE. And what is your job?

To take care of it.

The week prior I had heard the incomparable Terry Crews share a question he started asking himself that changed his life:

How would I behave if I was getting paid a million dollars to do this?

At the time he was a janitor. He started pressing his uniform, holding himself to an impeccable standard for his work, and showing up in his life on a whole new level.

Today as I was doing my morning thoughtwork, I realized what a funk I was in and how helpless I was feeling. The worst part about this kind of exercise is that I inevitably start beating myself up for how I feel.

You’re behind,
you’re not doing enough,
you will never catch up,
you wasted yesterday…

TURNS INTO…

You feel lousy
You’re helpless
You’re hopeless
You’ll never accomplish anything meaningful if you keep beating yourself up.

This is an untenable cycle, and one that I’ve been aware of for a while. I’ve wanted a cancer scare level ‘snap out of it’ moment, but that has been out of reach. Today, I resigned myself to the tedious daily work of rebuilding my mental pathways, and realized that when my default thoughts about my life are things like ‘I’m not doing enough’ or the dramatic go-to, ‘I’m drowning’ I feel overwhelmed, helpless, and hopeless. These feelings don’t inspire me to take much action, and I end up drowning in all of the wrong things.

If I’m going to drown, I want to drown under the weight of things I WANT in my life. If I’m going to feel overwhelmed, I want it to be with the joyful addition of the pursuits I’m most passionate about.

I only have one body. It’s my job to take care of it.
I only have one mind. It’s my job to manage it.
And if I were being paid $1 Million to live this life, how would I show up?

Intense thoughts, perhaps. A level of expectation for how I show up present in every day and every moment that will take some serious energy to live into.

But somehow, revitalizing for me. This new thought helped me snap out of my downward spiral this morning and ground myself in a purpose that feels exhilarating instead of overwhelming:

This is my one and only life. I have the choice, every day, to make it extraordinary.

If I replace ‘I’m drowning, I don’t do enough’ with the thought ‘This is my one and only life and I have the choice in every moment to make it extraordinary,’ I feel determined, excited, open to possibility and up for the challenge.

After all, I am the One And Only Erica. The whisper that says I am meant for more… it’s here for a reason. If I can snap back into this level of awareness faster, I don’t have any desire to beat myself up and I don’t have time to waste.

This is what my girl Brooke Castillo would call a power sentence, and I choose it today.

It has inspired me to pick three wins every day to declare in advance, then make come true.

And I hope that by sharing it here openly, I might inspire somebody else to take control of their own narrative while also holding myself accountable to embodying it more consistently.

Which of these thoughts / concepts resonates most with you?

God only gave me one body, and it’s my job to take care of it.

If I were getting paid $1 million to do this, how would I show up?

I only get this one life, and I can choose to make it extraordinary.

Something else?

Leave a comment and share your input. I’m dying to add to my power sentences repertoire.