Day 010: Even Good Things Can Cause Stress

In addition to my normal daily stressors (and sometimes I feel I’ve had more than my share – another topic for another day!), the last week has been highly stressful. Most of what I have on my plate is good, but it is A LOT! I have to remind myself I am one person. I am not meant to do everything perfectly. I am not meant to everything period, perfectly or not. I am not God.

We have to realize that good things with time constraints and people who rely on us to get a task done can have an impact on our mental, physical, and spiritual health just as bad things can. Hopefully, the burden to the good is shorter and the celebration of the good comes quickly, but the time before the celebration can often be just a lot of hard work and failure or near failures.

Good things cause stress and therefore many people walk away from their potential and the potential in others because they prefer to stay in their comfort zones. It’s easier to be middle of the road and say you want to do great things or be a great person than it is to actually fight through the stress the lead-up causes. The more well-respected, dependable, strong, capable, look-up-to-able a person is, the more demands are placed on him. That’s not a bad thing. That just means you are respected, dependable, strong, capable, and look-up-to-able, and you need to prioritize with gratitude and emotional maturity.

In short, when choosing to Live Not Ordinary, good things begin to happen. Those good things will be exciting in many ways, but burdensome in unexpected ones. Don’t lose your joy. Don’t forget the good because of the less than good. Don’t stop striving for greatness because you’ve grown a bit weary in good enoughness.

God Bless…

Gratitude Journal – Thursday, April 20, 2023

1. My amazing, wonderful, sweet, patient youngest son!
2. N who picked him up today even though she was busy too!
3. J who emailed me back when I had an urgent question
4. Leftovers
5. The sales reps who were so patient
6. The dogwood blossoms
7. E not putting my forms in! haha
8. My toughest class being so good today and yesterday!
9. Finding a mini twix bar from Easter that had fallen behind my hope chest!
10. Salad with chicken for lunch.
11. My nephew on his birthday.
12. The kids who stayed after school for review today! 🙂