How To Be Good Enough

There are many reasons why we fail to feel good about ourselves. Throughout each day many daily concerns and personal thoughts can lead us into having a good day or a bad one.

A lot has to do with how we may be feeling about ourselves. Am I doing the right things. Am I doing what I ought to be doing. Should I be doing this or that. What am I thinking about today? Personal acceptance is the key.

At times wanting and desiring perfection or better drives us to a state of inner turmoil. I have noticed that feeling uneasy and incomplete can be a bad thing or a good thing.

If it is some kind of happiness that I yearn for why do I not have it? These things can be related directly to the inner question: What makes me happy? If personal standards or perfection rules over us, we may never feel satisfaction or happiness. If I set my standards too high or demand too much of myself then I am surely ill at ease right from the start and will feel less happiness and fulfillment in the now.

I suggest that using personal desire and self betterment can be a good thing when it is addressed in a reasonable and rational way. One must learn how to consider what is realistic for themselves and what is too much. If a person is constantly trying to be perfect in every way and always demanding more and better they may be setting themselves up for disappointment even depression. It is a good and healthy thing to want improvement or more or better that can and is useful, but it is equally important and useful to see and accept ourselves for what we are doing and who we are being.

Seeking progress not perfection is a more realistic and emotionally healthy way to relieve stress and tension. Acept what is really going on around us and be acepting of ourselves is important for healthy reflection and optimism. What we expect of ourselves on a daily basis will dictate our personal contentment. Keep personal standards realistic. Strive to do and be what you consider to be good and choose to be content with yourself even if it is not satisfactory at the moment. Notice when you may be unhappy just because you have placed demands that are too high or stressful, because noticing and being aware of these thoughts can enable you the strength, courage and wisdom to realistically and more comfortably make changes for personal self improvement.

If you are always being stressed or uncomfortable in your own skin then you cannot have a healthy awareness and viewpoint from which to work from. If you are stressed or frenzied your instincts will want to reach and take hold of any available immediate satisfaction that may not be best for your interests. Step back out of yourself and take a realistic look around at the situation. What beliefs and ideals are you trying to live by. What is it really that you want? Are you okay with just being yourself? Are you content with what you are doing? Think about how much and in what ways you are content. Affirm this in your mind. Then you can more clearly be aware of your activities and how they may relate to personal contentment. Laugh, live, work, socialize, do things that bring on contentment and moments of happiness.

Meditation practice can greatly help reduce stress that is brought on by worldly factors. Take time out perhaps only even 30 minutes to have all to yourself in personal meditation. It will reaffirm your comittment to yourself. It will affirm that you acknowledge and believe in yourself. It will bring about higher self esteem.

Think of progress and not perfection and you will bring about more personal contentment. In the Bible at Proverbs there is a line which goes like this: --Better is a little, Than great treasure with trouble.--
Reprinted from Graspingthoughts.com