I realized this morning that I completely missed my regular Sustenance Sunday and Language Barrier Monday posts again this week. I had plenty of time to write over the weekend, but decided to spend my time doing other things. And you know what? I'm okay with that. It is, after all, my blog. I'm allowed to break the rules every once in a while, right?
My regular posts will be back next week, but today I am happy to find myself okay with not doing things the way they are supposed to be done. I am finding this so much more important the older I get, and this quote sums up my feelings on the subject of perfection, well, perfectly.
I think growing up, I always assumed I would reach a point where I had it all figured out. As many before me have done, I have realized through many ups and downs, that that is not the case. That likely (hopefully!) I never will have it all figured out. And being okay with that is another one of those growth opportunities.
For so long, I invested so much energy in making sure things turned out the way that I wanted them to. Even for something as asinine as the dining room table not having any visible mistakes. I had to stop myself as I was reviewing my paint job of our dining room table, when I found myself disappointed to find some obvious places that I had messed up (i.e. it didn't look perfect). I realized that I had the expectation that it would look flawless, as though it had been purchased white, instead of being an old wooden table that we decided to transform with white paint. It sounds silly, but I really had to make a conscious effort to stop myself and be like, "who cares?! you still accomplished the task of brightening up the dining room with a bright white table. and those signs that you see as blemishes or mistakes, will only point out to friends and family that dine at the table, just how hard you worked to make this table look beautiful."
For so long, I invested so much energy in making sure things turned out the way that I wanted them to. Even for something as asinine as the dining room table not having any visible mistakes. I had to stop myself as I was reviewing my paint job of our dining room table, when I found myself disappointed to find some obvious places that I had messed up (i.e. it didn't look perfect). I realized that I had the expectation that it would look flawless, as though it had been purchased white, instead of being an old wooden table that we decided to transform with white paint. It sounds silly, but I really had to make a conscious effort to stop myself and be like, "who cares?! you still accomplished the task of brightening up the dining room with a bright white table. and those signs that you see as blemishes or mistakes, will only point out to friends and family that dine at the table, just how hard you worked to make this table look beautiful."
Cheesy? Absolutely, but sometimes we need to give ourselves a good-old-fashioned pep talk and remind ourselves what is really important. So the table doesn't look perfect, sue me. :) I'm cool with it now.
Repeating my mantra (learned from a meditation/breathing course a few years ago): Expectations reduce the joy in life.
