The other day I was looking at pinterest and I noticed that so many pins these days are "5 Ways to Get Better Health," "The 3 Steps to Having Happier Children," "Change Your Entire Life in One Day," Etc. The last one might be a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean, right?
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| I made this image up to demonstrate my point. Please don't send people my way for baby care advice. |
I guess this started me thinking, do all projects have to happen so quickly and easily? I know that even in my own crafting life, I often get frustrated with long projects and look for the quick way out. Do I really need to measure everything so accurately? Primer, seriously? Sometimes this is okay. There are things that really don't require such a careful effort. But some projects do. One of my most time consuming things I've made was the quilt I sewed for my daughter while I was pregnant. It was my first quilt and I wanted to make it right. I measured everything and followed all the directions. And I'm so pleased with it. It's still really special to me.
Beyond that, I'm realizing that most things take time and shouldn't be dismissed because they are hard to do or take time. Being a parent drives that message home. I'm constantly reminding my daughter that she needs to "try again." We recently have been potty training her and while we followed the "three-day method," it's week three and we're still working on it. Because you know what, it's hard to learn to use the potty! It would be so easy to look at all of the "Potty Train in One Day!" pins and feel like we failed. I'm sure some kids do learn in one day. But probably most don't. It takes time and effort. And I certainly don't want to teach my children that if something is hard the first time, they should quit trying. We recently got our daughter a balance bike. She was so excited. After riding for a few minutes, she fell over. Instead of crying, she stood up and said, "Try again!" I was so proud.
I see this a lot in my own life. I tend to picture the end result and think that I should be able to immediately make that happen. I can see my perfectly clean and organized house in my head, so it should be that way, right? Teaching myself to take things a little bit at a time and celebrate small achievements is still something I'm learning, even at 30 years old (I guess learning this lesson isn't fast and easy either, right?)
What do you guys think? Have you noticed this too? Is this something you struggle with?
In today's world of instant gratification, we are trained to think that everything should be quick and easy. But anything worth doing takes time. I like to sit back and enjoy the ride, rather than rushing through it. (or at least I try!)
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