#1: Doing Our Best and Finding “Good Enough”

TRANSCRIPT

SURI STAHEL: Hi. Welcome to Doing Things on Purpose, the podcast that empowers women to take charge of their lives by doing things on purpose. I’m your host, Suri. 

INTRO: Join me as we navigate the challenges of modern motherhood, explore strategies for managing our time, health, relationships, money, and ultimately find fulfillment in our daily lives. 

SURI: Look, my goal is not to show you how to be perfect at anything, but to just open up the conversation about how, as women, we can try together to enjoy more and stress less while we do all the things in life that need to get done. So let’s get to it. 

So today I am beyond excited to kick start our first episode, my first episode of Doing Things on Purpose. And I thank you, thank you so much for joining me. 

As a wife and mom of two and a college educated millennial, I understand the struggles women today face in juggling various aspects of our lives. I want to start by acknowledging that there are so many ways to live. 

And that I’m not here to judge anyone or to tell them how to live. I realized, talking to many women, that each of us are just proud. It’s so beautiful to see that we’re just proud of how we’ve lived our lives so far. We don’t need somebody to tell us how we’ve done some of the things wrong. Oftentimes we already know. 

And what we need is support. We need resources to help us move forward and to maybe change perspective and look at things a different way. 

How can we again enjoy more of our lives? How can we move forward from where we are stuck? So these are just my personal views that I’m offering for your consideration. You are more than welcome to just take what speaks to you and what inspires you and please ignore the rest. 

So the reason this podcast came about was that it struck me that most of the people that I’d been reading, following, listening to, and learning from, whether it be about parenting, about personal finance, and investing, about entrepreneurship, mindfulness, yoga, coaching, online marketing and so on, they were and are still doing amazing, life changing work – but they kind of came from a different background than me. 

They either had attended an Ivy League school, so they were really smart, or they have ADHD, or they were high-energy A type personalities. These high achievers who are competitive and very results oriented, some naturally thrived with very little sleep.

Many don’t have or don’t yet have kids, or they are not in a stable relationship. And those few who do have families still struggle to find that balance between all the things while being these high achievers. So it means that nobody’s life is perfect, but so what? 

I think many of us would be happy to settle for good enough. 

What is good enough for us? So instead, this podcast is made by a regular mom or regular moms with normal levels of energy who are also seeking to live a balanced but meaningful life by taking the middle road. 

In honor of that, in this first episode, I’m inviting all of us to just let go of the idea that being the best is something noble that we must all strive for. I think it’s enough when a few of us do. 

Instead, we can give ourselves permission to purposely do our best with no comparison. You don’t have to be more put together than you are. You don’t have to have nicer clothes or a nicer home than you do now. 

• You don’t have to make a million bucks. 
• You don’t have to enjoy cooking or be the perfect parent. 
• You don’t even have to have kids. 

…if that’s not what you want. 

Why are we chasing the media or someone else’s partially portrayed best life? How about really noticing and taking some time to discover what we enjoy and what lights us up? For many of those influencers and high achievers, the topics they speak about are their own obsessions. So great for them, that’s why they made it. 

But let’s start imagining what your ideal life could look like, even if it might look perfectly normal in comparison to other people’s. 

Because it’s not just normal. It’s sadly not normal anymore to just have a happy, functional family, to have normal, honest relationships. To just be with each other kindly, without judgment, it’s not normal anymore. So it’s a practice that I think we can choose to cultivate that can be our life’s work. 

So in trying to figure out your purpose, I think I also have to acknowledge that as we grow and change, our dreams change, our needs change, and that’s something to be aware of. We can learn to respect that and welcome that change. 

There are seasons in our life, I think that’s something I really want to try to capture. You know, sometimes we’re chasing something that’s maybe meant for us later down the line in our life. 

So when we, for instance, just had a baby and we’re also wanting to hold on to that career part of our life. But for us, having a family is number one and we feel really guilty either way. Either way when we leave our child in daycare or when we can’t show up 100% at work. 

So I think to have that patience with ourselves to realize that maybe now, I’m just going to focus on this one thing and I’ll slowly wean myself off of that. And later, when I’m ready, when I know what I’m going to go for next, I’ll go there. We are not running out of time. 

So that’s just some food for thought. Thank you so much for tuning in. 

OUTRO: This is Suri on Doing Things On Purpose. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing it with someone you care about. And please check out my website, suristahel.com. 

There are some resources there to help you navigate the different areas of our lives, as I mentioned before. And if you have any questions you can email me at suristahel@gmail.com. 

Thank you again for tuning in and I will catch you in the next episode.