Kay:

Hey there Questers and welcome back. It’s Wednesday, December 23rd which means we’ve got two days until the big day, and one day until the Eve of the big day. And so, to celebrate, we’ve got a quote for you today from Kerri Walsh Jennings, especially with social media being front and center during the holidays, Kerri says, “I don’t want to be better than you or her or him – I want to be better than I am right now.”

Shi:

We really love this quote. It comes from, as Kay mentioned, Kerri Walsh Jennings, who is an Olympic gold medalist, and a one-time Olympic bronze medalist beach volleyball career. She’s got a really incredible track record and when you get somebody who’s at the top of their game, you often assume that they’re very competitive. In this quote, Kerri is demonstrating that she is in fact very competitive, but in a way that helps those around you not feel broken down.

Kay:

It is really hard to not compare yourself to others. Let’s just go ahead. I want to ding, ding, ding, ding, ding at you guys. Oh, hers was way better. Ding, ding, ding at you guys. It’s tough for everyone unless you’ve already built the mental habit around not comparing yourself to other people. We live in a day of social media. Right now, as Christmas is heating up, everyone’s posting the presence and posting their celebrations and posting their outfits.

Shi:

Engagements and babies.

Kay:

Oh, the whole thing. It can be difficult to not look at all of the celebrations around you and maybe start comparing their apples to yours.

Shi:

But that’s like you get to see everybody else’s highlight reel and you’re looking at your cutting room floor and you’re like, “Shoot, I’m not where I should be,” but that’s wasted energy for yourself. If you think about plowing a row in a garden, if you’re looking at somebody else’s row, then you’re not paying attention to yours and you’re not going to get your best product.

So, this is just a gentle reminder quote that we’ve got to bring our attention back to the row in our own garden and plant the seeds that we want to plant and be intentional about it and turn that competitiveness, that need to keep up with the Joneses, to be better than other,s and flip it on its head and do that to ourselves. Hey, I want to be better than I was today. I want to grow from where I was, and let this be the worst I ever was.

Kay:

Now, this is a really cool piece of advice that you most likely heard before. Many of us remember Matthew McConaughey, his famous Oscar speech, where he says, my hero is me in 20 years. We’ve heard these sayings and that’s all nice and well and good. But when you actually go to start trying to not compare yourself to other people, it can be really difficult. But fret not my friend because society isn’t really set up in a way to teach you not to compare yourself to others. In school, you are compared against the other kids in your class. You’re put on a scale. If you slide underneath the scale you get put into a different class. If you slide above the scale you get put into a different class. You get moved around based on how well you’re doing, based on how well your peers are doing. You’re constantly getting feedback on your grades and from your parents and from your coaches and from your peers and feedback and input becomes so important to you that you start to base your own self off of what you observe other people are doing and where they’re at because that’s how you were taught. So, fret not if it feels difficult to you, you’ve just built the habit hard in the other direction.

Shi:

Right. Sociologically speaking, you have to be able to compare to other people. You don’t know how you’re doing unless there’s some kind of comparison group. But when we start to base our self-worth off of that or we get competitive in the sense that you’re thinking I’m not worthy or I’m less, I’m better than somebody, or you’re scoring yourself and others in that way, that’s not where you want to live. It’s been interesting to observe with three kids. I’ve got two, 10-year old’s, and a seven-year-old. I mean, you cannot compliment one without the other two piping up. “Hey, Wesley, right on. Thanks for getting out the silverware today for dinner.” Without another saying, “Hey, I got out the plates.” They want the recognition or the, “hey, I did a good job on that too.” So, there’s this interesting level of recognition that happens and that we get conditioned by society that it is that measure of worth. So, finding that balance in between is something worthy of striving for, and something that Kerri is reminding us here in this quote. It is as Kay and I like to affectionately call it today, Christmas Eve, Eve. It is the Eve of Christmas Eve and traditionally today we host our cookie decorating party so we can get ready for Santa. Obviously, it will be much smaller as in Kay and Danny and my litter coming over to decorate cookies. But the tradition will continue, and we hope that whatever your traditions are, that you’re enjoying them in maybe a quieter, more intimate setting this year. But to remind you of what Kerri told you, “I don’t want to be better than you or her or him – I want to be better than I am right now.”

Kay:

Alrighty gang! That means today, we’ve got a #WorkoutWednesday quest for you. We are going to prepare ourselves for the holiday harvest. We’ve got five seconds. Shila and I are going to do this with you guys as well. So, put your chair back, stand up wherever you are, do it with us. We’re going to do 10 jumping jacks together.

Shi:

Okay. Here we go.

Kay:

Are you ready? 10, nine, eight, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10! Now, whether you take that further into a bigger workout today, or you just did that class, get out there and earn that Christmas indulgence today! Are you ready?

Kay & Shi:

Let’s quest!