When you read a lot of self-help books, coaching books, or spiritual books, you begin to notice a pattern.
If you're always looking for what is wrong with you, when do you ever notice what is right with you? Or do you begin to forget what is right with you?
It can become a constant stream of fixing. We have to fix this. We have to fix that. We need to be more of this or more of that.
When is it ever enough?
Is it okay to say, "Hey, I'm okay. There are some things I can fix, and some things I can't"?
I think some of the things we can fix are practical. If you're in debt, you could spend less and follow a budget. If you speed, you could slow down. There is something specific you can do, something you can practice.
But when we get into our identity and start confusing who we are with how we behave, it gets a little dicey. "I need to work on this" starts to turn into "I'm not good enough."
But we are. We're probably better than we think we are.
I want to remember that the next time I pick up another book or listen to another person tell me how I can improve. There may be something useful there, something I can put into practice. But there are also things that are already right with me.
Maybe we need to trust that we're okay, for the most part. That we're doing our best, even with some things still to work on.
When was the last time you stopped to notice what is right with you?
Here, I made this. My gift to you, for taking the time to read.
Images are from my imagination, generated by AI. Writing is all me.