Source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/9-YVPyoUW70/
“Striving for excellence motivates you, striving for perfection is demoralizing.” ~Harriet Braiker
The last three months I’ve been trying an experiment. It’s something that I’ve never done before, and in a certain way, it’s been a huge challenge. However, in other ways, it’s been an enormous stress relief, and I would say a largely successful effort.
What I’ve done seems to go against conventional wisdom, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a wise choice.
So what exactly is this challenge? Well, I have actively gone out of my way to be average.
Yep, sounds a little weird, doesn’t it? But hear me out.
Over the past year, I’ve become more aware than ever of how much unconscious stress I put on myself to be above average. I’ve always known I have a type-A personality, but I didn’t know to what extent this was doing me harm. A large part of this realization came from journaling my dreams and discussing them with a psychotherapist, and another part came about through a mindfulness practice.
So for six months, whenever I felt like relaxing, and the little voice in my head would pop up and tell me I could be doing more in this moment, I would ignore it. I would decide to watch that extra episode on Netflix. I would choose to sleep in …
Source http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/9-YVPyoUW70/
“Striving for excellence motivates you, striving for perfection is demoralizing.” ~Harriet Braiker
The last three months I’ve been trying an experiment. It’s something that I’ve never done before, and in a certain way, it’s been a huge challenge. However, in other ways, it’s been an enormous stress relief, and I would say a largely successful effort.
What I’ve done seems to go against conventional wisdom, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a wise choice.
So what exactly is this challenge? Well, I have actively gone out of my way to be average.
Yep, sounds a little weird, doesn’t it? But hear me out.
Over the past year, I’ve become more aware than ever of how much unconscious stress I put on myself to be above average. I’ve always known I have a type-A personality, but I didn’t know to what extent this was doing me harm. A large part of this realization came from journaling my dreams and discussing them with a psychotherapist, and another part came about through a mindfulness practice.
So for six months, whenever I felt like relaxing, and the little voice in my head would pop up and tell me I could be doing more in this moment, I would ignore it. I would decide to watch that extra episode on Netflix. I would choose to sleep in …
What Do You Think?
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