You were handed someone else’s instruction manual and told it was yours.
In our last chat we met the You Were Made for the Full Spectrum, Not Just the Pretty Parts energy and talked about what it is and why it matters. Today we meet the Miss Cranky Pants version. And this one has two very distinct faces.
If you have consistent access to this energy, knowing about the cranky version is especially important. See if you can spot yourself in these patterns.
Miss Cranky here is beating herself up again. And the thing she is beating herself up about? Her own rhythm.
When you are in this energy, you are wired for variation. For seasons. For the full range of what life looks and feels like, the highs and the lows, the productive stretches and the idle ones, the days when you are magnetic and unstoppable, and the days when you honestly cannot make yourself care about the nicely organized color-coded schedule everyone else seems to live by.
Society has a lot of opinions about that.
This is the Monotony version of Miss Cranky Pants. Not boredom from having nothing to do. The particular misery of trying to force yourself into a version of consistency you were never made for.
You try. You start a morning routine that lasts four days before it falls apart. You put together a habit tracker, start strong, and then it fades away and disappears. And then the guilt arrives. The harsh self-judgment. Everyone else can do this. Why can’t I?
The cranky side of this energy is when you shame yourself for your extremes. Forcing a consistency that does not fit. Trying to control the natural waves of your own rhythm because you have been conditioned to feel that your way of moving through life is the problem.
It is not the problem. You were just handed someone else’s instruction manual and told it was yours.
The second version of Miss Cranky Pants shows up in relationships.
When the people around you insist on wanting only the comfortable parts of life, who resist the difficult seasons, who judge the extremes in themselves and others, something in you gets frustrated. You can see the whole picture. You know the messy parts are as valuable as the tidy ones. And the refusal to see that can flip into impatience faster than you would like to admit.
I live with this regularly. My hubs does not understand my willingness to work through the tough times rather than walk away just because something is uncomfortable. He will say that someone is difficult and simply stop engaging. He much prefers the comfortable parts of life and genuinely resists the difficult seasons.
We have been married 41 years, so he is used to me. But it is not unusual for him to encourage me to just quit instead of seeing a situation through.
Happily, I have learned to navigate my highs and lows and the seasons of my life. It took some doing, but I got there. And that means I have less of this Cranky Pants energy than I used to. Yay!
So there are two versions of Cranky Pants energy in You Were Made for the Full Spectrum. Not Just the Pretty Parts.
One runs underneath your daily life. That feeling of I should have a routine but I just cannot seem to stick with it. What is wrong with me? Nothing is wrong with you. You were just handed someone else’s instruction manual.
The other shows up in relationships. The impatience that comes from watching others avoid the hard seasons while you are wired to stay and see things through.
Next time, we talk about what this energy looks like in everyday life when it is working exactly the way it should. And that version? She is something to behold.
I wouldn’t miss it. I hope you don’t!
Find your happy. Love what you do. Make a difference. Come back to me safely. See ya!
