How a Bounce House and a Pastry-Making Show in Spanish Banished My Bad Vibes and Restored My Swag

The problem with rising expectations is you have to keep delivering the results.

I’d finished out the kind of January that I could have only dreamed of a couple years ago. And I felt down because I realized this was the new normal and now I had to do it again. I was feeling burnt out and unsure how I was replicate those results again.

I know. Cry me a fucking river right?

Still, I was wallowing instead of planning and scheming and getting organized for the next one.

Until my oldest son, who is 4, asked me to come sit in his bounce house with him while he watched a show on pasty making, in Spanish, on his iPad. As the soothing sounds of the background music blended with the melodic confectionary commentary, it occurred to me that I was taking this whole thing far too seriously. It’s going to be fine.

In that moment I was healed.

I sat there in silence with my oldest son and became contented.

We often come to places like these searching for all kinds of things. The newest this, the latest that; the greatest life hack and the shortest short cuts. We search for articles (and sometimes even write them) about “10 Ways to Be Happy” and “Financial Independence for Busy People”. What we sometimes forget is what makes our lives happy and rich are right in front of us, asking us to watch a video on cupcakes.

That special and funny little boy reminded me of why I had been working that hard in the first place.

And made me want to work that much harder to keep the smile on his sweet face forever.