I am much more of a starter than a finisher. You would not believe the number of partially finished projects I have. On my walk with Luna this morning I had some musings about how I can get more things finished.
Yesterday’s Headspace episode was about letting some things go so you can pursue things that will bring you joy, that will energize you. I definitely have some partially finished projects that I should (and will?) let go of. And, I have some projects that I do want to finish.
The project that I wanted to finish today is the version 2.0 of my mom’s word search puzzle. At mom’s Celebration of Life, many people kindly added to the list of words that come to mind when they think of mom: aunt, proud, devoted, flawless, Blue Light, lemon, squares, $20.00 (I’ll put it in as twentydollars), Roland, David, kind eyes, spark plug, trooper, inspiring, fun, energetic, spirited, purple, antiques, gardenias, family, Buckshot, Gagnon, Lapasse and yuri (we’ll give mom the last word!).
And I finished. You can find the new versions linked below. I’ll also add them to her Celebration of Life post.
A few days ago on Radio Headspace Mel Robbins described her ‘high five’ habit that she recommends. I have heard her speak of it before and I have occasionally tried to develop the habit in the past. I’ll give it another try. But what to say as I look myself in the eye in the mirror and give myself a high five each time I brush my teeth. But what should I say that I can always believe? Great job? You did your best? Nailed it?
I think perfection is overrated. The idea of aiming for a B+ effort resonates more strongly with me than always giving everything our best effort. Or I want it to resonate more strongly with me. Because I don’t think we can (or should) give everything we do our best effort. We need to give some things less than our best effort. So that we have some time and energy left for other things we want to do. And to spend time with the people that are important to us.
For example, if you’re competing in a triathlon – you can’t give the swim your best effort if you want to optimize your bike and run times. You need to save some of your effort and energy during the swimming leg to have enough for the other cycling and running legs of the race. You need to give the swim the best effort. But what is the best effort for that swim?
Remember that the last 20% takes 80% of the effort. Is all that extra effort in the swim leg of your race, to say nothing of all that time focused on swim training before the race , worth giving the swim leg of your race your best effort. Instead of an A+ effort, sometimes (or often?) a B- or a C+ effort is the most appropriate effort, the best effort. It’s a good enough effort. And you’ll have a better race overall.
As I was approaching 60 years old, one of the phrases I used was Seeking 60. Yes, I was seeking to do 60 things 60 times. Just because. I am choosing to believe I nailed it. I definitely didn’t actually acheive that goal. I’ll have to go back to see how close I was to acheiving it. Maybe I reached 60%. But I believe I gave it the best effort. Because that is exactly the effort I gave it. No more, no less. It wasn’t necessarily my best effort, but it was the most appropriate, and therefore the best effort for that goal at that time in my life. While I was keen to do 60 things 60 times, I wasn’t willing to focus all of my attention and time to that goal. I wanted to have some time and energy for other things that came up that I wanted to do. I was giving myself a chance to practice giving a 60% effort, to realize and begin to believe that, most often, a 60% effort is the best effort. That year I became more comfortable with giving things the right amount of effort: the best effort; not my best effort.
Try not to give things too much time and energy. You might get burned out or develop an injury. Rather than experiencing progress, you’ll have a setback that may even prevent you from reaching your goal. Much like the grilled cheese that I was trying to cook in a rush at lunch: too much energy and time resulted in burnt toast.
A short update on my Try It Tuesday post: I didn’t get my Thursday morning swim in yesterday. The city had closed their recreational facilities for the morning due to a big snow storm. This is a good example of the value of building some flexibility into your schedule, of having some wiggle room, some flexibility.
Fortunately there was a lane swimming session on Friday mornings as well. So F and I met at Brewer pool this morning rather than Thursday morning. And it was great. I didn’t push myself to swim a distance or at a pace that I used to be able to do. I just took it easy. And I remember how much I loved swimming. Especially with a friend. Especially when the sunlight streamed in through the windows and made the water glisten and the bright light danced and reflected up off the bottom of the pool. I’m looking foward to swim number 2 next week.
Are you making any progress on any of your Try It list? Give it the best effort. You’ll be glad that you did.
Creative Treats 