I wonder if any of you have this experience ...

Let me try to describe it to you, as it all happens in my own head:

I wake up in the morning, say at 6:45.

I kind of wanted to wake up at 6, but I didn't. I woke up at 6:45.

It is still early. The day is still new. I still have lots of time in front of me.

But ... I didn't get up at 6.

I unconsciously start to think that if I had gotten up at 6, rather than 6:45, my day would have been "perfect."

Now it is not. It is not a bad day, but it is not perfect. And I subtly assign a ranking to the day thus far and it is a slighty lower ranking than the day really deserves.

But I do it anyway.

This can (and too often does) continue:

I go through my morning routine, which is actually pretty good, pretty balanced, pretty healthy, but I have to skip several steps, I have to rush through some things, I don't read or pray and sit in silence as long as I hoped I would. So I unconsciously, very subtly assign my morning routine a ranking, a grade ... and it is like a B - or even a C. And I can sense my spirit sinking a bit.

Then I get to work. Maybe I don't greet my friends in the office as cheerfully as I think I should. My office is a mess, and I whisper to myself "Your office should be more clean." Maybe I start to work but before I do, I check a bunch of social media and news sites, and once I break out of my technology stupor, I think to myself, "C'mon! Stop procrastinating! You should ALWAYS just get right to work and never get distracted!"

And on and on it goes. It is not really a bad day; not at all. In fact, it is a pretty darn good day.

In fact, it is the only day I get today. This one real day. I don't get the idealized, perfect day I think I should have. No matter how hard I try I can never have that day. All I get is the very real day playing itself out right in front of me.

Too often, becaue of the noise in my own head - the noise that tries to tell me how my ideal day should look - I end up MISSING the very real day that is playing out right in front of my eyes.

The idealized perfect day becomes the enemy of the messy real day.

The perfect is the enemy of the real.

The perfect is the enemy of the real.

The perfect is the enemy of the real.

This is my new morning mantra.

As soon as that voice tries to tell me that my day would have been "perfect" had I only woken up at the "perfect" time of 6 a.m. I start to whisper, "The perfect is the enemy of the real, Alice."

Don't miss what is right in front of you.

It is real.

It is imperfect.

But it is so, so good.

And so are you.

Real, imperfect, and good.

Or at least good enough. 

(smile)