The Hardest Lesson

A couple of weeks ago I had an epiphany. I am sure that it is a concept that 90% of adults already know and when I reveal it will shake their head in wonder that it has taken nearly 35 years to notice the obvious. But it did and I feel the need to share. So here it goes.....

Life is a process. Full of behavioral habits.

I know. Kind of dumb. But it occurred to me that I have treated a lot of things as goals to be reached. I am going to be physically fit! I am going to be financially responsible! I am going to be organized! I am going to be the most awesome mum ever and not yell or spank, but firmly discipline without tears and threats!

I have always thought that if I could just GET to the place where I was organized (for example) that staying that way would be magically easy. It would be like unlocking a door to a room where organized people go, and I would know all the secrets and it would take little to no effort to stay that way. I could remain in the organized room forever. So I have slogged through the work to obtain ..... organization or whatever, and for the most part, I have never reached that door. Whenever I achieve organization in one part of my house, another part falls apart. So I get frustrated and decide that I WILL. NEVER. BE. ORGANIZED. That usually leads to me giving up for a while.

Until I had this insight. These goals are not a mountain to be summited. All hard work on one side and easy downhill slide once I get there. They are more like a cycle. If I desire to be better organized, I don't have to achieve perfect organization. All I have to do is to be more organized, on average, than I have in the past. To have more days when I am slightly better than average at organization. I don't have to transform into a person who goes to the gym everyday for an hour or more. I just have to have more days when I eat less and move more, to be more fit and healthier.

Maybe if I can manage to do this for long enough I will get the coveted trophy of adulthood.