Today I had a real milestone in my life – I took pizza out of the oven without burning myself. I know that may sound silly, but it was a huzzah moment for me! The last few times I’d used the oven, I ended up burning the ever-living s*&t out of myself somewhere on my forearms.
And it’s weird, because I am no stranger to the oven. I was that kid in high school who was always baking. Constantly. I made cakes and cookies and brownies. I was the kid who brought something in for the other camp counselors multiple times a week. (Although that likely had something to do with feeling like I had to do things to get people to like me, which is a story for another day.)
What I’m trying to say is, I know my way around an oven. But for the last few weeks I have just been a disaster burn victim of my own making.
So today I want to share with you a little secret that helped me to chill out and stop trying to be so perfect all the time. Because I don’t know how it was for you, but for me, trying to be perfect was exhausting and completely worthless. No one is perfect all the time!
Sometimes we knock it out of the park on the first try. Sometimes we do something we’ve done a million times and we fall flat on our face – even something as simple as pulling a pan out of an oven.
The opportunity we have is to be mindful of the intention behind our action and to choose who we’re going to be about it no matter what the result is. If you’re looking forward to the result, wanting to “get it right,” well, that’s a lot of pressure on yourself. You might stop yourself before you even get started if you’re afraid of getting burned. (OH YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT I WENT THERE.)
But if it’s just practice? If this is just a chance to try something out and see how it goes? Well that’s a whole different story.
So that’s my gift to you today – look at everything you take on today as practice, even the things you’re super good at.
See how your experience of your day changes!
Heck, maybe it’ll give you the opportunity to celebrate something you do every day like you just hit a home run!