Entrepreneurship has taught me some ‘harsh’ truths.
Things like:
- I will miss out on many things in my life
- There is no such thing as getting everything done
- No amount of efficiency will solve a genuine volume problem
- And…I’m going to fall short
Strangely enough, knowing these things has become really encouraging.
Here are some things I’ve noticed about myself…
When I was a broke college student, I always wanted to spend a bit more than I had. Now that I’m in a different financial situation, I… want to spend a bit more than I have.
When I’m late, I’m often 5 minutes late.
When I set a working limit of 30 hours a week, I often worked 35. Now that my working limit is 15 hours a week, I tend to stretch it to 18.
I don’t go way off the rails usually – I just push the limits a bit.
Maybe you’re the same way.
I used to beat myself up about this, but I’ve started to realise that this is a somewhat natural human trait. We strain a bit against our constraints, but most of the time, they do make a difference.
And this is where the encouragement comes in.
I think the maxim “shoot for the moon, because even if you don’t reach it, you’ll land among the stars” is a bit played out at this point, but you know what? Life kind of does work that way.
There’s room for grace for the places we fall short. We don’t have to throw our goals or systems or habits away when we do. They’re still doing their jobs.
And maybe we can celebrate where we do land.
Ashlee
(photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash)