Accepting Mediocrity

I listened to a podcast the other day that in some way referenced the idea of accepting poor work on some things in order to excel at others. This idea resonated with me in a big way … it’s something I’ve been subconsciously doing for a long while.

In my mom’s house, sheets were neatly folded. Laundry, in general was a lot more neatly done. In my house, I fold almost everything … but it may be a day or 7 before I get to it. Sheets generally get kinda folded, kinda not … those fitted ones are hard, and honestly, I just can’t be bothered.

My kids make their own lunches. I have very few rules surrounding this other than “no sugar!” (cuz I like their teachers). So some days, Ben takes a banana and an orange and some days he takes crackers and cheese. Life’s just like that. They get relatively little time to eat and they will be getting (generally speaking) a nutritious dinner.

It used to be at work that I would flip if forms weren’t laid out perfectly or if tasks I assigned weren’t done to my standards. These days, I’m really happy to delegate because it means that I can reserve my time for the things only I can do. Sometimes it’s hard, but it’s so productive I can’t care much.

I work in fits and spurts on the organization of my house. Right now it’s pretty good. Before Christmas, it was a shit show. But I refuse to take every single one of the scant hours I spend at home for organization and cleaning. I want to play piano, read, watercolor and BE WITH MY FAMILY without nagging them to clean up.

My mom also had a saying that I loved and though it isn’t 100% applicable here, it’s tangentially applicable:

You can have help of you can have it done your way.

– my super wise mom

I choose help. I choose the more important things.