As I’ve gotten to know myself a little better over this past year, I’ve realized that one of my major flaws is that I’m not very good at outlining steps to completion. I’m good at thinking up things to do, learn, or improve on but I’m NEVER realistic about how long they’ll take. This is usually because I don’t think through everything that needs to be done in order to accomplish them. This in turn leads to frustration and I end up feeling like I’ve fallen short.
Case in point: I bought some cute material to make things for our baby’s room. Yesterday I wanted to get something done…a crib bumper, a curtain, the dustruffle, a quilt block, etc. I got out the material (approximately 12 yards total) and realized that I hadn’t washed it yet. So I put it in the washer thinking I could probably still at least get something cut out. It ended up that I got it washed, dried and ironed yesterday among all the other things I did. Now in my previous mindset, yesterday would have been something of a failure because I didn’t get anything “done.” But instead I decided to be glad about being one step closer.
This year I’m going make an effort to appreciate, think through and work at finding satisfaction in preparation and process. I’m going to accept my weaknesses so that I can set realistic expectations for myself. I think this will help me to see small ways that I can overcome them because I won’t be focused on feeling as guilty about them :). If you’ve got ideas on how to do this, please pass them along.