Friday, March 11, 2016

You Can't Worry Things Perfect

I have the good fortune of working down the hall from one of my oldest and best friends. Sometimes we see each other a lot ("People are driving me crazy, do you want to walk to the cafeteria with me to get a brownie so I don't flip out on someone?") or sometimes we go hours without seeing each other. A few days ago we were chatting about something at my desk and it came up that we both have super planner personalities. Which makes us awesome and organized, but it also means putting completely unnecessary pressure and stress on ourselves. Paging INFJs....

At any rate, Jen said something kind of off the cuff that I thought was brillllliant. She said "I have to stop trying to worry things perfect".

Holy cow, truth bomb.

Where do you go from "I'm just planning things, and I'm concerned about the planning and this is really pretty normal and fine" then crossing into "I'm staring into space in my bed at night with sweaty palms because I'm worried about this THING". I struggle with this sometimes. I also struggle with keeping my expectations in check. (Especially with gift giving. I take a weird sense of pride in picking out gifts for people that I really think will fit them perfectly and if I get the sense they don't like it I will be, like, abnormally saddened about it). 

You know what will not help at all? Worrying. As Jen says, it's not like "oh if I just continue to worry about this thing, and do it enough it will all work out perfectly in the end." It won't. Sometimes, even with careful planning, things will blow up in your face. But so so so so much more often, things will just be grand and dandy. 

So much easier to say then put into practice, right?

As a reminder I have it written down on a sticky note on my computer. It will be especially helpful today because one of the things that I was trying to worry perfect is happening today. But I know it will be alright!



Some day when  I get better at computer stuff and I finally figure out how to embed PDFs I will make it into a printable.

4 comments:

  1. I am honored. Sometimes you are the conduit to tell people what they need to hear... Glad I could do that for you. Hope all went well today, and if not, I'll bring cookies on Monday!

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    1. Everything was fine today. The candidate is a total sweetheart. Hope that you found some bargains at World Market!

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  2. Truth bomb indeed. That's the best thing.

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Thank you so much for your comment. I'd love to talk books with you!