One of the hardest things for me to learn was how to give myself grace. Honestly, it’s still a work in progress and probably always will be. Learning to give myself grace however, is an important part of this journey. Without grace, the obstacles I’m trying to overcome are going to feel like they are towering mountains.
To scale those mountains successfully though, I have to be honest with myself first.
I would tell myself I was okay with making a mistake or error; that I was okay with failing to keep to a new routine. It seems like a fairly simple acknowledgement of being human. BUT, saying it and BELIEVING it are two very different things. I’m not saying that I believe I’m incapable of making any errors because I am. It’s more that making those errors is unacceptable because it doesn’t quite reach the bar of excellence I set for myself.
This blog is a great example of this. While I plan to focus on creative pursuits on here, it is also a way to track my own self-growth. Unlike math or science which have a clearer line between black and white, creativity has a lot of gray and every color in between. No two artists are going to draw, paint, color or write the same way. They may learn the same TOOLS of their chosen craft but there is an indefinte amount of ways to mix, match and bend each of them. By giving myself grace, the things that I once deemed as a mistake can now take on a different moniker. I can see the beauty in the flaws because let’s be fair, the flaws are what make things relatable. I can learn to accept that perfection is an impossible accomplishment. This is especially important when you throw a family into the mix and find yourself constantly being off track.
So, I’m giving myself grace today. Telling myself that it’s okay that I haven’t posted more on my blog in the last three weeks (I’d planned to post every other day). That it’s okay if I haven’t written anything on any particular day and that it is okay that finding time to learn an instrument by putting in practice is a challenge.
Life isn’t about perfections; It’s about preserverance and the drive we have to push forward even when the mountain standing in front of us seems insermountable.