I am a perfectionist. I have many many many many things that I wish I could do well, or better. And I get rather distracted by each new thing I think of that I want to do and don't accomplish the 3 or 10 or 50 other things I have already put on my listofthingstoworkon.
For example, take sneaking extra nutrition into meals that we eat. Like the cookbook Deceptively Delicious advocates. I don't have this cookbook. But my wonderful sis-in-law, Lanae, does. And her New Year's resolution is to cook more at home and eat more healthfully with her family. A wonderful goal to have. I was recently at her house and we discussed this and made blue box mac-n-cheese for the kids with added white bean puree to the cheese sauce. Sneaky nutrition. And even her pickiest eater gobbled it up. (She has tried a number of the recipes in the book and her family loves them.)
I came home from her house and thought, "Hey, yeah! That is what I should be doing!"
Another case in point involves a conversation I had with a good friend of mine, Kristie. We were discussing how to fit in exercise and scripture study and time to meditate and still get the kids out the door. Her friend would get up at 4:30 in the AM to do this. She'd read, exercise, make breakfast, etc. And Kristie was doing this for a while, too, when she was a teacher at the gym and taught the 5:15 (in the AM!) Body Pump class. After we discussed this I thought to myself "Hey, yeah! I could totally fit it all in that way!"
Other things that have caught my fancy that I totally want to learn to do include:
making and using homemade laundry soap
ditto with house cleaners
listen to more of and become well versed in classical music
ditto with reading classical literature
teach myself to play the piano
plant a veggie/herb garden (believe it or not, in another month or so it will be time to start this in my neck of the woods.)
There are more, but this will do for now.
Each of these things are good, worthy goals to have. Each of them, when I learn about them, is new and exciting and a challenge. And I love a good challenge. The problem is that I want to do them all NOW. In addition to the very important goals that I am currently, actively working on. And they distract me from the things I am in the middle of doing. Like a shiny new toy that pulls me away from my homework.
Part of the problem is that I want to be good at everything. I am type-A all the way. And I could really nearly drive myself and my family crazy trying to do it ALL. So I have to pull myself back to reality and realize that I can accomplish many things, but not everything all at once.
This is why these Healthy Habits challenges are so good for me. They focus me. And keep me motivated. And give me a little friendly competition to keep things interesting.
I hope you like these challenges as much as I do. And are geared up for the next one!
(Oh, and not to worry. I quickly recovered from the notion of waking up at 4:30 in the morning. That's just crazy!)
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4 comments:
aubrey, i can relate in every way to this post. i could have written it. i am so easily distracted and swayed by ways to improve myself that i fear it stops me from making actual, measurable, improvement in any area.
i spent a good six or eight weeks in 2008 rising between 4:30 and 5:00 to "get it all in" before my kids got up. on the one hand, it felt great to study the scriptures, get in an hour's workout, shower and even have makeup on when it was time to make breakfast. on the other hand, i wanted a nap by 10 am, was crabby by mid-day, and had to be in bed by 9, which left me hardly anytime in the evening to do things that were important to me then. sigh. if only we could just do without sleep (but our family still needed it) think of how much we could accomplish!
I have thought many, many times: I wish I didn't need sleep. I could get so much more done.
I fall so easily into the "Mormon Super Mom" trap. Ahh, Perfection- you elusive vixen!
I can relate completely too! Maybe that's why we all need this challenge. ;)
Thanks for hosting it, Michal.
It just makes me tired thinking about it all at once! This challenge just works so well for me too.
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