My own worst enemy

Someone said something to me today - in fact, I have heard this phrase three times in the past couple of weeks. I don't think I could count the times I have heard it in my adult years. "You are too hard on yourself." And I am - very much so. Why? I could give you a hundred reasons. I am a pleaser, I have a touch of Type A personality (not to an extreme), high expectations of myself, and I guess just basic wiring. I am a wife, mother, sister, daughter in law, worker, sister in law, Sunday school teacher, and friend. For some reason, I feel I have to full fill every one of those roles to the best of my ability. No wonder I am so hard on myself. Did I mention I could also be my own worst enemy? I don't think I can let anybody down in any of those areas. I set a higher standards on myself, while sometimes holding others to a lesser standard. If for some reason, something didn't go as I thought it should, I will replay the situation over and over in my head trying to figure out where and why it went wrong. If that isn't enough, I second guess myself all the time. Did I say the right thing, did I handle it the right way? What I shoulda, woulda, coulda done to handle it better? While all this has some good points, it is hard to do everything right in every role in every situation. We live in a fast paced world that is ever changing and expecting to do everything right every time is setting yourself up for falling short of your goal. Sometimes, it just happens. There is a fine line in healthy discipline and being too hard on yourself. Sadly, women really can't have it all. Something suffers along the way - and for me, that isn't a good thing. Truth be told, some of the things I really push myself on really aren't that important, at least not in the big picture. Going forward, I am going to try to cut myself some slack. Some time ago, I saw a quote on my daughter's facebook page. It said "If I didn't make it so hard on myself, life would be easy." I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.



For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.

I Corithians 14:33