How To Tell If You Are Successfully Adulting In 5 Easy Steps

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I am totally kidding. I couldn’t tell if I was successfully adulting if my life depended on it. Seriously, most of the time I would consider myself successfully adulting if I have showered this week. 

Let’s be real, there is no way to tell if you are being a successful adult because there is no one true standard. What is a success for one person is totally irrelevant to another.

Are you successful if you have 2.3 kids, a dog, a house and a job? Are you successful if you spend your days at home sculpting the hearts and minds of 2 little people? How about if it is 5 little people? Do you consider yourself successful if you can take your kids on lavish vacations or is your definition of successfully adulting spending a rainy Saturday snuggled on the couch with your hubs and kiddos binge watching Netflix?

Yes.

The answer is yes.

Yes, to all of the above.

I used to think that I would be a successful adult when I had checked all the boxes. When I had a good job, nice house, the perfect number of kids, a svelte body… then I would have reached that monumental moment of feeling like a success.  But it doesn’t work that way.  If I am winning in one of those categories, inevitably I am failing in another.  What I believed was an illusion.

I recently had coffee with a neighbor who has three kids, including a set of twins.  I was telling her how I felt bad about my dirty car. When kids get out of my car in the carpool line, 3 coffee cups follow them. Another carpool mom’s car is as clean as a rental car.  

My neighbor said, “Good. for. her.” Then she said that she does not care if she meets anyone else’s standards, she meets her own standards.

Win.

Yes. That was golden.  That was music to my ears.

So take head and take heart.  You are successfully adulting because as an adult, you get to decide what matters.  All the rest is white noise.

However, if you are the types that really needs that checklist, try this on for size.

Successfully Adulting in 5 Easy Steps:

Step 1. Take care of yourself.

Step 2. Take care of your family.

Step 3. Take care of each other.

Step 4. Drink more water.

Step 5. Nap.

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Rachel, Senior Writer
Rachel is a native Coloradoan, though originally from the Western Slope. She followed her husband Chris to his hometown of Colorado Springs after having met in engineering school at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. Together they have four beautiful children, Tommy (2011), Tazzy (2014), Zach (2015) and Zinny (2018). Having a young and active family keeps Rachel on her toes trying to find ways to keep the ship sailing while still meeting all the demands of motherhood. Though Rachel loves her most important role as Mommy most, she also works full time outside the home as a Water Resources Engineer for the Colorado Division of Water Resources. This role helps keep her life centered, bouncing from detailed and complex discussions relating to Colorado Water Law with her husband ( a mechanical engineer) to daycare and preschool drop off and pick up schedules, while being constantly interrupted by the equally complex musings of her 4 year.