Breathe. Please.

From ✍️: @livingfullaftered (Danielle Sherman-Lazar)
📸: USA Today Sports

“You guys really gotta stop asking athletes what’s next after they win a medal at the Olympics. Let us soak up the moment we’ve worked our whole lives for.” Simone Biles wrote on X.

This is the problem with the hustle culture in the United States. We are all about “What’s next?” and not enough about basking in our success and taking a much-needed break.

The message is that you can only be successful in this life if you hustle, i.e., get straight A’s and do endless extracurriculars to get into the best college and then land the best job.

We must keep pushing ourselves.

It’s so ingrained that we feel guilty if we aren’t always actively pursuing goals. So, we run ourselves to the ground, ignoring our bodies and minds until we break completely.

It’s happened to many of us.

So, I will let my kids know they’re more than their achievements.

I’ll never waste my parenthood so hyper-focused on pushing them to achieve that their mental health starts to suffer.

Because great, your child is the top goal scorer on the soccer team, but does he know he’s loved even if he weren’t?

And your child is applying to all Ivy Leagues, but does she feel comfortable coming to you in tears when she fails?

Our children are people, not accomplishments.
And we’re more than our accomplishments, too.

So, I’ll make sure they always choose their mental health over everything.

Simone is right. It’s okay if we don’t always know what’s next.