October 2023
“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.”
Although this quote is widely attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, he credits it, in his Autobiography, Chapter IX, to Squire Bill Widener of Widener’s Valley, Virginia.
I rephrase this a bit to myself all the time. (It’s what I do. And what we should do – make things work for YOU.)
I rearrange the phrasing
Do what you can,
where you are
with what you’ve got!
We ignore the middle parts of the sentences. Not because we want to or even realize it, but because our brain actually doesn’t care what’s in there. It looks at the first parts and the last parts and makes the stuff up in between (to get from A to B.).
I am well aware of where I am every single day (it’s probably what I’m most focused on and what I am defined by.)
What I do forget regularly is to do what I can with what I’ve got.
So when I repeat it, I really do kinda mumble the middle and remind myself “Do what you can, mumble mumble, with what you’ve got!”
It’s a great trick to set my brain right and get it (and me) back on course.
I think, what do “I got?” And “what can I do?”
And from the moment before I said those words to myself and the moment I started thinking about it, NOTHING has changed in my surroundings, with my “gots.”
But I’m now thinking about what to do with it that gets me moving, excited and able to think about things in a different way. When you have to “do” something, it is amazing the ideas that come to you.
There are realities and this question helps me acknowledge those realities (and the multiple personalities I feel like I hide behind).
I usually find 2-3 things that I could do but I’m not ready, or could do but I’m not liking the consequences yet and a handful of things that are do-able and I’m ready – moving me on the next path.
When I hit those moments (which happen a lot) of “I don’t want to do the next thing I know I need to do but I’m just not ready…” I think of my rephrase, what can I do with what I have. That tells me I don’t necessarily have to go out there and make myself uncomfortable (or even interact with people! Introvert WIN!) Just shift stuff around in my already existing universe for myself.
It’s like cleaning up that junk shelf or drawer. It doesn’t feel like it’s going to make a difference but boy does it AND then…who knows what is coming next?
It’s cleaning the junk drawer of my brain…do what you can…with what you’ve got!