Up Your Game This Valentine’s Day

How about if this Valentine’s Day you upped your game? What if, instead of--or in addition to-- focusing the intensity of your love on that one special person in your life, you turned the spotlight of your love onto your life! Your whole life, all of it, every aspect of it. If rather than complaining, dissing, blaming or criticizing your life, you embraced it wholeheartedly with all the love, hugs and kisses you lavish on that special someone?

So granted, your work life isn’t perfect (whose is?!), but if you look at your job, your career, through the eyes of love, you’ll find all manner of things to appreciate about it. Not the least of which is the paycheck it affords you. There are co-workers you do like or who support your efforts in some way. There is a place to go, tasks to achieve, which allow you to use at least some portion of your intellect and creativity.

Your family and/or friends drive you batty at times, but somewhere in the mix there are good times, fun adventures, tender moments. What if you focused on those, letting the memory of them bring a smile to your face, and let friends and family members know how dear they are to you, with words as well as hugs.

Then there’s you. Ah, yes, the tough nut to crack. How about loving yourself? You see, as wonderful a gift as social media is to us in allowing us to more rapidly and freely connect, it also brings up an awful lot of the devil known as “comparison.” Everyone else seems to be happier, thinner/fatter, taller/shorter, prettier/more handsome, more successful, than you. Everyone else seems to be trending with what’s trendable, in the know on all the scoops, and launching into ever more exciting jobs, travel, cars, clothes, mates!

Dang! You can’t possibly love yourself and compare yourself to others at the same time. Other people will always, being the different sorts that they are, in one way or another be more of what you aspire to, or less of what you dislike. So what? You are YOU, marvelously uniquely YOU! And that--along with your marvelous and unique life--is worthy of love.

Love. As in caring about and caring for, yourself and your life. Love. As in being grateful for and appreciative of, yourself and your life. Love. As in being tender towards and taking pleasure in, yourself and your life.

Love really is all there is.