Because you all are my friends, I feel comfortable telling you that I use a measuring cup to eat cereal every morning. I scoop exactly 1 level cup of Honey Nut Cheerios into my bowl (not a heaping scoop like I use for my dog) and that’s how I start my day.
I measure my cereal because I love cereal, and I love to eat. If I stopped measuring, I have no doubt that I would consume a steadily increasing amount of processed carbs every morning. At first, I’d probably stay pretty close to the amount I’ve been eating, but over time… that bowl would get more and more full until I convinced myself that our current set of dishware is a little too small and that cereal really should be eaten from a tupperware. One year later, I’d just be pouring milk into the cereal bag itself and eating it with a ladle.
But, that’s not happening because I have a measuring cup and I use it.
At this point, you might be asking yourself “what other pieces of Andy’s diet does he measure?” The answer is none. I don’t use a food scale, and I am notorious for cooking and measuring ingredients with my heart. If I want to eat half a bagel, you better believe I’m taking the bigger pre-cut half and leaving the smaller half for my children. When I grab fast food with a group of people, I’m going to try to sneak and eat the fries that fell out into the bottom of the to-go bag. As we all know, if they’re loose in the bag they don’t count.
So, why do I measure cereal? If the rest of the world is so chaotic, and I know I’m going to come up short on willpower when the lunch and learn has a taco bar, then why bother with this one thing?
The answer is that our inability to control every aspect of our lives doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take pride in being disciplined when we can be. Too many of us are in control 90% of the time and walk around feeling shame or frustration for the times that we just have to deal with what the world throws at us.
I measure my cereal for the same reason I make my bed: because even if the rest of the day goes off the rails, I know I have some control and I made some choices that make me feel good about myself. Our lives are full of opportunities for us to make disciplined choices we are proud of, but those choices can feel futile when we still end up in chaos or when we wear down and just need to do what is easy in the moment. We shouldn’t let that feeling of futility take hold.
Yes, our surgery schedule may go off the rails, but we should still be disciplined about, and take pride in, getting started on time. Of course a pet owner is going to walk in unexpectedly at the end of the day with a problem that should have been addressed days ago, but we should still feel good about the effort we put in earlier in the day to stay on time. The fact that we had to do some veterinary work on our day off doesn’t negate the fact that we did a great job of taking breaks and making sure our support staff got their breaks throughout the week.
Life is chaotic, and that’s even more true if you’re in veterinary medicine. There will be endless times in which you will not have control of the situation you are in, and that’s why it’s so important to be intentional and to feel proud of the things you are able to control. After all, on those days when every pet you see has a mysterious illness, every pet owner has “just one more question,” and your own child gets sent home early from school for being sick, at least you can feel good that you measured your cereal.
