I wrote this post as part of the Plugrá Butter Brigade. Thanks, Plugrá, for sponsoring this post and for making my favorite butter!

I’m good at making mental lists of all the things I’m not doing well. I’m behind on responding to so many emails. I never feel like I’m doing enough for social justice. I don’t remember the last time I got my oil changed (sorry, Dad). These things are important and I need to work on them. But the other day I was stopped at a stoplight and for some reason, I started thinking about how many ways I’ve grown as a person. The list is longer and more encouraging than I thought.

During the holidays, every Instagram snap can inspire self-doubt. Everyone else’s tree is perfectly tinsel-tinged. Everyone else is having a spontaneous, rosy-cheeked snowball fight with their kids. Everyone else is baking, eating, laughing, dancing. Everyone else’s perfect pictures become your self-flagellation: why can’t you get it together? Why can’t you get in the spirit? Why can’t you just be happy? Instead of giving into that, though, let’s focus on how much better/stronger/healthier we are than we used to be. Here’s my list, but (and here’s the hard part) don’t use my list to JUDGE YOURSELF! Instead, make your own list, and add it in the comments.

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