Help Me Choose This Month's Book Club Selection!
Plus, How To Sidestep Envy And Be Inspired Instead!
Help Me Choose This Month's Book Club Selection!
This month we are reading fiction (we switch up month-to-month) and I thought it would be fun to do a poll and have you choose which book we all read. The first book is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - I’ve never read it even though I absolutely love the Lord of the Rings films! The second option is And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, a great murder mystery. Choose the book you’d be more interested in reading this month, and I’ll announce our selection next week!
What You Might Have Missed At Classically Abby…
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Quote of the Week:
“Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” – Mark Twain
Classic Style Inspo
Today, I just thought I’d drop some beautiful, classic fashion into your inbox! This was Grace Kelly on the day of her civil ceremony to Prince Rainier III and my goodness, her whole look was stunning.
Things I’ve Been Loving: No Glue False Eyelashes
Something you should know about me? I HATE applying false eyelashes. They are so hard to apply, they inevitably jab me in the corner of my eye, and then they’re so uncomfortable I have to take them off! These lashes are a gamechanger. You simply peel and stick them to the underside of your eyelashes and they just stick there. It’s great!
Welcome to Classically Abby!
I'm a wife, mama, opera singer, entrepreneur, YouTuber, and your guide to becoming the classic woman you've always wanted to be! Follow me on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter to see how! And together, let's be classic.
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How To Sidestep Envy And Be Inspired Instead!
Hello my lovely friends! I hope you’re having a wonderful week. I am currently in St. Louis about to make a three-hour drive with my father to Truman State University to give a speech for the Young America’s Foundation! I’m excited to get to speak to and meet the young college students here in Missouri, and I really look forward to sharing my thoughts with them. If you’d like to watch my speech, I believe it will be livestreamed on YAF’s YouTube channel, so you’re welcome to watch it here. I’ll be speaking at 5:30 PM CST!
I don’t know if you all have noticed, but I’ve taken a short hiatus from YouTube and Instagram for the last few weeks. I’ll be returning soon, but it’s been wonderful to refresh, focus on my son and husband, and simply embrace my homemaking role. I think it’s important to recenter every so often, and whatever that looks like for you, do it! Maybe that means getting a massage, going to grab a cup of coffee, or doing a Target run. Or maybe it means waiting till the children are in bed and going for a walk around your neighborhood to clear your head. But it’s so important as moms to pour from a full cup, so make sure yours is full to the brim!
Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about envy vs. inspiration. We live in the age of social media. So much of what we see is people looking perfectly put together, smiling, happy, and organized. And to be fair, I get it! I don’t think we need to share all of our mess online. It is an odd dichotomy: we either see someone’s highlight reel, or we see someone oversharing just a bit too much. But I think there’s a very important middle ground to be had - putting our best foot forward while also being honest about the messiness of life.
The thing about looking at someone’s highlight reel or even just seeing someone accomplish something we would like to accomplish is that we often write it off as impossible. We get jealous or we undermine or we act better than. I know I’ve done it! I’ll look at some of the women I follow and think to myself, “There’s no way she gets her hair and makeup done every day AND gets 10,000 steps in!” And yes, there are probably many of us on social media who make it look as though we get it all done when we don’t. But sometimes I think we are too quick to throw someone into the “well, that’s just unrealistic” bin.
I found myself doing this a bit too much in the last few months, looking at other creators and degrading them while also degrading myself. I felt bad that I couldn’t accomplish what they seemed to be accomplishing while also taking care of my son and family. I would love to have my hair and makeup done every day, I would love to regularly exercise, heck, I’d love to get dinner on the table every night. But the truth is, there are days where none of that happens. My hair is often thrown up in a bun, the closest I get to makeup is sunscreen, and dinner ends up being the quickest, simplest thing I can make for the third night in a row.
But then, about a week ago, I had a realization.
Is it possible that there are areas that I could improve in to make my life look a bit more similar to those women I had previously been envious of? I think there’s a good chance I have the time in my day to get a few extra things on my to-do list crossed off. But I get into the rhythms and habits of wasting time or doing smaller tasks that are easy but I don’t care as much about, and then find myself regretting how I used the hours of my day.
So I thought to myself - why not be inspired by these women I follow rather than envious?
Start here. What do you imagine a successful woman’s day looks like? What do you imagine her habits look like and how she organizes her time? Okay, you’ve got the picture in your head? Great. Now, do that. You know what successful people do. You have a pretty good idea. So try to implement those actions into your life.
I started watching the women I was envious of with more of a practical eye. How does she utilize her time in the morning? How does she meal prep so she has lunch ready to go rather than needing to spend half an hour making it every day? How does she do her makeup in ten minutes or less?
All of a sudden, my envy quickly turned into camaraderie. We’re in this together! Let’s see what I can learn from you so that I can be better.
I’m definitely not perfect, but when I remember to implement these practices into my daily routine, I feel that I have a more meaningful and productive day. And maybe I’m finding something positive in my social media feed, after all.
What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
I’m still not sure social media will every be good for my mental health; but approaching it with that mentality of we’re in this together - that’s helpful!
I used to hate watching channels like yours because I always felt like I was a failure compared to them, until I learned to change my mindset and *learn* from them! Nobody's perfect, and I am definitely not as productive some days as I'd like to be (see: me still in bed at 1030am writing this comment), but it makes things a lot more enjoyable to watch videos of women I used to be envious of from a lens of learning from them, as you've said! ❤️