Encore Living
You raised your kids. They’re launching their next chapter… but what about yours?
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Encore Living
#017: Juggling Chainsaws and Perfectionism
In this episode, I look at perfectionism and ask when we have to be perfect and when we don't. As far as I can tell, juggling chainsaws is one of the few times that really, truly requires perfectionism. Most everything else? Well, have a listen...
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Welcome to Every Day, A New Thought Show. I'm Thor Challgren. And today I'm going to ask you a question. When you're juggling chainsaws, do you have to be perfect? Probably yes.
If you're juggling something like plates in the air, there's kind of a perfect way to keep them all up in the air, right? You move your hands and you have to have a certain rhythm and motion to it. And you have to catch each one perfectly, though. Technically, I guess you're not even really catching them, are you? But you have to impart the right amount of momentum as you keep them all juggling in the air.
So a question: if I was just juggling three balls and I dropped one. What would happen? Well, if it's a plastic ball, it would hit the floor. It would bounce back up to me. But people watching this error might think, Oh, he's not a good juggler at all. He's not perfect. So in that instance, I'm being judged on my perfection as a juggler.
Now, if the value of what I'm juggling is low, no worries, if I drop a plastic ball, that's fine. But if I drop a priceless Chinese plate from the Ming Dynasty, that's a different matter. But you know, show of hands anyone out there juggling Ming Dynasty pottery? Yeah, me neither. So I can relax about being perfect when juggling because nothing that I drop in my imperfection is worth getting upset over most of us in our life. There's nothing that is that important that if you don't catch it exactly right. It's going to be a catastrophe.
Now, what if I was say juggling chainsaws that were turned on? Okay, so in that instance, I would probably want to be perfect. It might be hard to shake someone's hand after that. If I'm an imperfect chainsaw juggler. But I'm not doing that. Again, nothing that I juggle requires that level of perfection.
So why is it that I have this notion that there's a perfect way to juggle things in my life? To be honest, the reason I probably have this belief is because I haven't examined it before. I just assumed that everything in my life was Ming Dynasty pottery or chainsaws and I had to be perfect. Because if I wasn't the audience watching me would be disappointed in my suppose it imperfection. Well, guess what Thor? What you're really juggling are plastic balls that bounce back anyway. It's okay, if you're not perfect.
So my lesson for you today, my suggestion is look at the things in your life. And ask yourself, are you juggling Ming Dynasty pottery, or are you juggling balls that bounce back? And if it's the latter, consider that maybe you don't have to be perfect and you can give yourself a little grace.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai