Wear Clean Underwear

Do Your Best

As it turns out (and you guys are so smart you probably already knew this), doing your best means:

• Spending time with friends and family
• Taking care of yourself and your (beautiful!) body
• Setting priorities
• Knowing when to call it quits
• Being willing to do something "wrong" before you can do it "right" and, last but certainly not least,
• Wearing clean underwear

You may be wondering how I arrived at these conclusions. Well, lemme tell ya. . .

The Lecture

I always tell my lovely children that success means:

1. You did your best and
2. Enjoyed yourself while doing it

Wow, This is so Fun!

So there I was last night, eating my words, er, pushing a midnight deadline for an online coding class I'm taking (yes, this is part of the single mom plan to make enough money to support children in Fantastic Frisco) and I wasn't feeling exactly successful.

I really don't do my best work late at night, was dying to get into bed and let's just say the website I'm making is a prime example of crazybeautiful. Love the color scheme but, uh, the navigation won't align and only God knows why Arial won't load.

Still, I was feeling strangely proud of myself and I will tell you why. In addition to spending 9 hours doing something that is really, I mean really, hard for me, I:

• Had coffee with another mother and talked about how we're raising our children
• Got a haircut so I can feel just that much more like Marilyn Monroe
• Walked 3 miles so I can be strong and healthy
• Cooked magnificent food with my children, so we could talk and share work
• Did yoga and meditated because it's what I DO
• Snuggled in bed with my children while reading a good book (mmmmm) and
• Did my laundry because, baby, the underwear situation was getting dicey

Okay, Kids, Here's the Update

As it turns out, for the single mother, success means sometimes NOT doing your best. Doing your best is also not a static, closed system but a dynamic balancing process.

TMI for an 8 year-old? Alright, I won't change The Lecture. We'll file "dynamic balancing process" under "Enjoyed yourself while doing it."

Your Turn

Besides wearing clean underwear, how do you define success?