Accomplishment
So much in this life is viewed as either an accomplishment, a failure, or a waste of time. I wonder why that is. I mean, surely I know why mankind does this, but really, why? It isn’t necessary is it? I think we value what others think too much. If we didn’t value what others think over what we already know in our hearts, for our own selves, we’d be alot happier. Aren’t we hard enough on ourselves than to also put the weight of what others will think on top?
I seem to be asking more questions than giving.
Okay, maybe it’s good to evaluate what we do and to put value to our peer’s opinions. I’m not sure that we give ourselves enough credit though. Other people tend to want to see results sooner rather than later. Few have patience for themselves and less for others like you and me.
Isn’t it enough to accomplish things in our lifetime? I mean, if we make a list and add to that list as we mature, of all the things we want to accomplish, and at the end of life we’ve crossed those items off, isn’t that enough? Think of all the things we had done and learned that were never on the list in the first place!
I’ve just celebrated a milestone birthday. Middle age. Well, it is to me since my parents and grandparents always live(d) longer than the average person anyway. I’ll say it’s middle age, and expect a long life. Of course my attitude didn’t change over night, but I decided I’ll use the birthday as a point of departure from the former norm. I’ve decided I don’t need a list any more to determine what things I need to accomplish with the rest of my life. I’ve decided to just live it. Of course there will always be a short list. There will always be things that need to be attended to during the week. But the big list of life goals? No. I don’t need that anymore.
I admit that when I was quite young I was a striving perfectionist. “Striving” perfectionist because I knew I could never achieve that goal. Once I was in the doctorate program, an article by Psychology Today helped me realize my perfectionism was a program for an early death. I changed my thinking practically over night. My follow through continues to this day. It is an ongoing effort at times, to not fall back to trying to be perfect. I found it’s much simpler and enjoyable to do “good enough.” It also doesn’t intimidate those around me whom I rely upon for input.
Along the way I learned more about God too. You’d think with all that training that I would have come out of seminary with a full knowledge of the ways of God and how to not only apply them to my life, but to help other’s equally as well. Certainly my training assisted me in helping thousands (yes, wow, thousands!) of people over the years. But, can I say, I wish I knew then what I know now, and I wish I knew now all that I’m going to know in the future?
Anyway, I used to think that God, being the divine Being He is, and the perfectionist He is, demanded that of us, too, (Of course He knows we could never meet it.) But now I know “better.” God, in His infinite wisdom, only expects of us what we are capable of at the time. Our time.
I think with having realized earlier that I don’t have to push to be something I’m not, or someone I’m not, I will be able to keep to the no-list-needed philosphy. That list was to keep me on track to accomplish all I could right now, and as much ahead of time that I could, too. Getting ahead of the game was often a theme of my life.
What I’ve realized is that, in God’s eyes, accomplishment is not measured by earthly time.