Accepting Our Best

 

August 30

 Accepting Our Best 

 We don’t have to do it any better than we can—ever. 

Do our best for the moment, then let it go. If we have to redo it, we can do our best in another moment, later. We can never do more or better than we are able to do at the moment. We punish ourselves and make ourselves feel crazy by expecting more than our reasonable best for now. 

Striving for excellence is a positive quality. 

Striving for perfection is self-defeating. 

Did someone tell us or expect us to do or give or be more? 

Did someone always withhold approval? 

There comes a time when we feel we have done our best. When that time comes, let it go. There are days when our best is less than we hoped for. Let those times go too. Start over tomorrow. Work things through, until our best becomes better. 

There is a time for constructive criticism, but if that’s all we give ourselves, we’ll give up. 

Empowering and complimenting ourselves will not make us lazy. It will nurture us and enable us to give, do, and be our best. 

Today, I will do my best, then let it go. God, help me stop criticizing myself so I can start appreciating how far I’ve come.

Beattie, Melody. The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations on Codependency (Hazelden Meditation Series) (p. 245). Hazelden Publishing. Kindle Edition.