tuesday's true confession: one of these things is not like the other

Have you ever felt like you don't belong?  You know, kind of like that song I used to sing along with the characters of Sesame Street when I was five, "One of these things is not like the others.  One of these thing just doesn't belong."  I feel like that today.  ;)

(Here's space for you to ask, "Why?") 

Well, thanks for asking.  I have projects in a couple of challenges right now, and my projects aren't quite measuring up.  They just don't quite belong in the sea of super creative projects.  Here's the thing I'm confessing today . . . I'm super competitive . . . BUT I'm not competitive against other people.  I know that's odd, right?  Typically, competition rears its ugly head against another person.  But I'm super competitive against myself, and I always have been.  This frustrating trait reveals itself in a variety of circumstances.  

Here's a few examples:

• When I was in school, if I got 95% on a test or a paper, I HAD to get at least 96% on the next one.
• If I run four miles one day, I have to run four and a quarter miles the next.
• When I was taking a class last fall in another town, I was always trying to shave a few seconds or minutes off my drive time from the day before.
• If I make make what I think is a super creative project one day, the next one has to be even more creative. 

This little trait is good at times because I'm always pushing myself.

But more often than not, it's debilitating and ridiculous because I can't always improve.  I mean, eventually I got 100% on paper and tests.  But I couldn't get better than that, and I certainly couldn't maintain that forever.  I can't always run more than the day before because time and my knees won't allow it.  I can't always drive faster . . . at least if I want to keep my licence and stay alive.  And reality tells me that some projects are super creative and some projects just are.  Each project cannot be better than the next. 

At some point I have to give myself a break.  At some point, I have to be okay with less . . . even much less than 100%, running less than the day before, driving slower and safer, making something that's just okay.

I started this crafting thing to give myself a break from competition against myself and my tendency toward perfectionism.  But somehow I let it creep slowly into what was supposed to be a therapeutic hobby.  

So today, I'm okay with mediocre.  I'm okay that my projects in these wonderful challenges just aren't as good as I want them to be and aren't as good as other project that I've done.  In fact, I embrace it!!  And to embrace my mediocrity, I encourage you to hop over to the voting pages for Iron Crafter and The Trendy Treehouse not to vote for mine, but to vote for one of the super creative projects linked up.  I'm loving so many of them.  And I do have a few that I'm rooting for, but I'll keep them to myself because I don't want to influence your voting . . . not that I actually have the power to influence your voting. ;)
   

Last week Cate confessed her own love of crazy music.  I'm so relieved to know that someone else knows the lyrics to Vanilla Ice's music!   

So the link up below is for you to add your own confession.  Confess whatever you want (silly, serious, sappy) or not . . . just try not to make it too sultry . . . if you know what I mean.  ;) 

If you don't have your own blog or don't want to take the time to write up a post, just comment below with your true confession.  Maybe you don't want to, that's fine.  If no one links, that's okay too.  We are all busy, and we certainly don't need another thing on the to-do list. 

If you do participate in Tuesday's True Confession, don't feel obligated to link back or post the button.  You can if you want to, but I don't demand it.  ;)




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