Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Meeting Other's Expectations

Today's thoughts may seem a little negative to some. Other's may wonder if I am in a bad mood. I don't intend them to be negative and I am actually in a very good mood. Sometimes when people write to me they say things like, "Your writing often expresses exactly how I feel but I didn't know how to articulate". Hopefully, this is also true of today's thoughts. One of the things I am trying to do in my life is not feel guilty about anything. I am not always successful in this endeavor. Life and other people make many demands on us. There is always something to do or someone that expects something. I can't do everything and I can't meet everyone's expectations. I believe I am speaking for many people when I say "I'm doing the best I can"! I'm sorry if I am not always the perfect spouse, the perfect father, the perfect son, the perfect brother, the perfect friend, the perfect boss, the perfect employee or the perfect co-worker. The one area where I feel I am probably meeting all expectations is being Chloe's Pa Paw. I am also sorry if I am not always enthusiastic about everything. Sometimes I am just tired, other times I would just like to be left alone, once in a while I am just trying to get through the day, and, on a rare occasion, I really don't care. None of us can be all things to all people all the time. I am at a point in my life where I am tired of trying to make everyone happy or to meet everyone's expectations. This is probably a symptom of getting older. I am as good as I'm probably ever going to be. Once I told a co-worker, "You know, I've had about 20 annual performance reviews. Guess what? I'm still the same person. My strengths are still my strengths and my weaknesses are still my weaknesses". Having said all of this, I am still trying to allow myself to be spiritually transformed into a more loving and caring person. I'm not completely happy with the kind of person I am. Like all of you I am a work in progress. Even if I was at my peak as a human being, it would not please everyone. Once President Lyndon Johnson told a group of people, "If I could walk across the Potomac River, the next day the newspaper headline would read "President can't swim". I understand how he felt. Although I do occasionally give in to human weakness and criticize other people, I try not to do it very often because I believe everyone else probably feels like I do. In other words, they are doing the best they can with the circumstances that life has given them. There's an old Native American saying that goes, "Don't criticize your neighbor until you have walked a mile in their moccasins". So, let's assume we are all doing the best we can. Let's quit making one another feel inadequate. Lets quit criticizing one another. Rather, let's focus on what we're all doing well.

1 comment:

Gabriele said...

Wonderful Post. I agree with all you say here. I too need to improve as a person.
However, After years of living up to someone elses expectations, I dropped out and live happily with my wife seeking the Divine.