Somewhere along my journey I heard about something called the 60/40 rule. When it was described to me I thought it was ridiculous. Ridiculous, I tell you. The idea behind the rule is that most people do things well about 60% of the time. Yes 60 is the percentage of time I am a patient, loving mom, teach my children values, get the work done I want to in a day, laugh as much as I want to, am engaged and present in what is going on around me, have a good outfit on, make it to church on time, have my house clean, know the right thing to say to my clients, and am a caring friend, daughter, sister, and ex-wife.
"Shouldn't this percentage be at least 80/20?" I've thought to myself. The idea of 80/20 seems much more like what other people are doing. One of my friends has great hair 100/0. Surely I could make it on at least a few things to 80/20. But over the last few years every time I strive for more than 60/40 I fail. For me, more than 60/40 doesn't leave room for grace, humility, rest, and letting go. There is something beautiful that happens when you lower your expectations a bit. I smile more when I mess up. I stop and pray when I'm trying to do more than I should. I trust God and others to fill in the gaps instead of just myself.
My boys and I are 60/40 people. We've been through a lot. We aren't perfect. We're counting on the messy 40% to be made beautiful somehow. We know 100% that happiness in our lives is both already but not yet. So for now we'll take the 60% we can handle and let go of the 40.
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