Cutting Yourself Some Slack

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We all bleed red, we all taste rain, all fall down, lose our way.
We all say words we regret, we all cry tears, we all bleed red. –Ronnie Dunn

In our over amped, supercharged world, we’re often trying to do more and be more, and be perfect at all of it.

But life is a journey and a process, and perfection is not a realistic goal, much less a healthy one.

We fall short.
We screw up.
We make significant mistakes.
We hurt other people.

Not to say we shouldn’t try hard or give a flip, but sometimes we are our own harshest critics.  Being accountable is one thing; being unrelenting in our expectations is quite another.  Frequently we expect more of ourselves than we would ever dream of expecting from other people. 

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It really is ok if someone gets mad at us, or feels disappointed or let down.  We don’t have to like it, but it is ok.  We really can’t be all things to all people all the time!

And we can goal-set and scheme all we want, and sometimes things simply don’t pan out.
 

Consider, too, that without our imperfections, we’d lose a lot of our humanity and most of our compassion.  The difficult and unappealing aspects of our lives greatly influence who we are as individuals, perhaps even more than the good and great aspects do.



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Try letting go of whatever you’re currently beating yourself up about – for a day, or even an hour.  See if it changes things.  This is something I’m working on in my own life – giving myself permission to be wonderfully imperfect.  It’s very liberating.

I’d love to hear about your own experience with cutting yourself some slack.  Feel free to comment or shoot me an email.

Imperfectly yours,

Marianne M. Smith
Writer At The Ranch
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time
http://writerattheranch.com
wordsmith@writerattheranch.com