Fitbit Burnout and The Art of Middle Ground

I hunted for folks writing about Fitbit burnout and couldn’t find any.

Really?  Tons of critics re: having to re-boot it throughout each day but nobody saying anything like, “I’m hanging up my Fitbit and practicing moderation and acceptance.”

I finally consented to wear one, driven by my inner critic, and after three months of some fairly interesting data-collection, I put mine in a box.  I keep a shoebox in my closet, some call it a God Box.  Whatever goes in there is something I am committing to letting go.

Workaholism is one of the things in that box!  Perfectionism and a few other choice “-isms”.

An acronym for -ism is “I sabotage myself”.  Perfectionism surely is self-sabotage.  It leads to shame when we fall short.  It often leads to procrastination, because we delay rather than risk the messy imperfection of doing something creative.  Many perfectionists could likely use some extra help with this… perhaps a visit to Workaholics Anonymous would be helpful. Truly, we over-achievers and strivers can find solace with the same 12 Steps that help alcoholics and drug addicts.  Sometimes the drug is endogenous (from inside of us)… and it’s adrenaline.  Too much fight and flight.

So, I’m just here to scatter some internet fairy dust, however imperfectly.  It’s okay to stop logging everything.  I spent years logging the food I eat and, well, maybe it made a difference at first, to raise awareness… but awareness must lead to action.  I’m afraid that too many devices, strapped on, telling us to get those steps in, check our heart rate, are we doing enough, being enough???  Enough.  I quit.

One day at a time, I won’t be checking to see how interrupted my sleep is.  Whether I got an A in fitness.  Good gosh, there are days when I do the requisite workout time in two days instead of seven.  I get it.  I’m enough.  When is it too much?  I posit, likely, it is often.

Aren’t you, too?  Just good enough?  It may be a cliche but sadly, it’s a huge driving force behind our self talk.

Someone told me years ago that they called their critical self-talk “K-FCK Radio” – all the news about her, all the time.  She told me she just changed the channel when the critical, sometimes hateful, broadcasters would begin to report on her imperfections.

I’m changing the channel, right now.  I am seeking the middle ground.  Not too humble and not too great.  A heard a story that Golda Meir had two pieces of paper, one in each pocket.  One said, “You are god’s perfect child” and the other read, “You are ashes and dust.”  She was also credited with saying “You don’t have to be so humble… you’re not that great.”  Perhaps just for a moment, we can pause in the middle of the piano’s 88 keys.  We don’t have to master so much.  We can just be good enough.

Peace.