Soft Girl Era

I’m in my soft girl era. My friend and I go for walks almost monthly, and during one of our last walks, she said this to me. 

The irony was both of us had been training for our first marathons, so we’d been experiencing all the highs and lows of training together. Among the lows– those that constantly remark about your (or more likely their) mile split time or calories burned or insert some other achievement-oriented comment. 

This is not to say that having a goal around your pace or feeling proud of your calories burned is a bad thing, nor is achieving said goal with intensity. What I am suggesting is that it’s also not a bad thing to run just to run. 

In other words, it’s ok to not always push your limits or maximize your intensity, but rather it’s ok to honor your limits and optimize your wellbeing– in whatever way that means for you. For me and my marathon? That meant not running for a time but for crossing the finish line with my sister, however long it took. Maybe it means not hitting your PR but moving your body. Not going for that promotion but honing skills in your current role. 

In our always-on, productivity-praised hustle culture, it can feel slacking or even shameful to feel like we’re pulling back rather than pushing ahead. There’s a subtle yet powerful difference though between settling and being self-aware, from maximizing potential and maximizing wellbeing, from doing and being.

Whatever era you’re in right now, you are empowered to choose how you show up. Whether you choose to PR or to just cross the finish line like me in whatever metaphorical marathon you’re running, there’s power in honoring your era.