Sometimes We Fail to Move Closer to Our Goals

"My hope is to eventually truly realize that sometimes we have to 'fail' at some things in order to actually move closer to our goals. And maybe to take 'fail' out of my vocabulary all together. Because as much as I felt like I dropped some balls this week, I really just rolled them to a point in the future where I could pay attention to them. "

That is an excerpt from a caption on an Instagram post I shared earlier this week, and it's something that's been on my mind a lot ever since. It's honestly something that's been on my mind in different ways throughout this year.

I'm doing better at learning to not over-commit myself, something I've been much more intentional about lately. However, when life happens and I have weird weeks where plans fall through, complications pop up, and I somehow end up getting glutenized (my name for it) by eating a salad that was somehow cross-contaminated despite my best efforts, I'm not the best at continuing to juggle all of the balls in my court. For normal weeks, I know how long different tasks take and what I can reasonably commit myself to. When life appears to hit the fan, I'm great at managing the crises, but I often end up dropping some of my more routine tasks. Those tasks suddenly appear so much less important that whatever it is that has gone wrong. 

Dropping these tasks often makes me feel like I'm failing. It's even easier for me to feel like a failure as soon as I look through the lens of social media at everything everyone else seems to be doing so much better than me. This is despite knowing from experience that what we see on social media is so rarely a complete picture of what's happening in the life of the person sharing. This comparison often makes me feel like even more of a failure.

There are plenty of things happening in my life that can make me feel like a failure - like a rebrand that I'm considering for my primary business that I know will get some push back from people that don't understand/aren't me. Push back is easy to interpret as rejection and rejection can often feel like failure. (And those are thoughts for another day.)

The gist of what I've been trying to communicate, is that comparison is easy (the "thief of joy" quite literally), but giving grace to myself is hard. But grace is where I can recognize growth in myself.

At the end of the day, I know that it's impossible for me to juggle everything on my plate successfully when a curveball is thrown in (or when I add too many items into the mix.) If I want to succeed, part of that success is recognizing my priorities, knowing the amount of time I have to dedicate to things, and admitting when I need to roll one of the items into the future when I can give it the time it needs.

I can't pay attention to everything simultaneously so it's unfair to expect that from myself. More importantly, I'm not failing when I reschedule these things. I'm respecting myself, my time, and my dreams enough to give them each the attention they need in the order I'm able to give it.

My sincerest hope is that you're able to extend grace to yourself when your own life gets crazy.

Here's to walking down a path of continual effort to extend grace towards ourselves and each other, since I know there will be days when I forget and try to juggle everything at once! The beautiful thing is, every moment is a chance to hit reset, take a deep breath, and try again.

How do you handle things when life throws some curveballs in your direction? I'd love to learn from your methods!

P.S. This mug and shirt are from Rosalynne Love who has the cutest little shop!