Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Lighten Your Load

So our congregation used the same theme as the other congregation that I spoke to. In fact, they did everything the same. The only difference was the food served, and the talk that was given. But even though we were both given the same topic, our speaker had a whole new spin on it. The speaker in our meeting told a very interesting story that I thought you would enjoy hearing.

She said that when her children were small, one day she came home and said, "This purse is getting so heavy! I just can't carry it anymore! I wonder why it is so heavy. I just need to clean it out." Her young daughter came to her and said, "Mom, I know why your purse is heavy, I have been collecting rocks for a couple of weeks, and I have been keeping them in your purse.". The mother dumped out her purse, and sure enough, there was a whole collection of rocks in the bottom. She told us that she didn't notice the rocks as they were added one by one, but only noticed after the load became too much to carry. She went on to talk about the "rocks" in our life that we carry needlessly. She mentioned Fear, Guilt, Unrealistic Expectations, and the "Die Hard attitude" that we have to "do it all"...even if it kills us.

One thing she told us was about a magazine article that she read that said that if people approach life with a perfectionistic attitude, 95% of the time they will fail in what they attempt. But if they approach the things they do with the attititude of just trying to do a good job, they succeed 95% of the time. I do agree with this statement. I have seen so many people who have a black and white attitude about life and their accomplishments, and they are never happy. For them, either they do things perfectly, or it was a failure. I believe it is much healthier to just focus on doing your best, and give yourself a break if you aren't perfect.

1 comment:

Delirious said...

JJJ had trouble posting this comment:

Hmm I disagree being a perfectionist, I have to say that 100% of what I finish is near 100% perfect. Although 99% of what I do never gets finished cause its still a work in progress.
So I dont fail I just take a long time to get done .

And that stone in the purse thing, that can be applied to getting old to, you look in the mirror every morning and you dont notice any change. then suddenly one morning your half asleep and you look in the mirror and after wondering who is breaking into your house you release its a mirror and wonder what happened?

mentioned Fear, Guilt, Unrealistic Expectations, and the "Die Hard attitude
Is it wrong to have non of them?
not guilt I can think of, I have low expectations, and my attitude is let someone else to do.

good post