Standards and Ideals… did God Make You The Judge?
OK, so you have high ideals. So you have high standards. No one can be good enough, including yourself…
What’s the problem with that? After all most people live as if life should measure up to their standards and ideals. But the problem is that life and other people never fit your pictures of how life or people should be. Which leaves YOU forever dissatisfied, powerless, struggling, and without inspiration. High price for a little standards and ideals indulgence? You bet. So what can you do to reclaim the lost power to standards and ideals?
OK.
- Step 1 is to recognize and state that YOU have a standard or an ideal. You recognize that you have it because you think that life should be that way you consider/think/expect/want it to be. That includes people, and includes yourself.You see, you included yourself in how it should be: you should be this, and you should do this, and you should look this… etc. All by YOUR made-up standard.
It leaves YOU with a fear of not measuring up, or suffering of not having measured up. You stop participating in life fully, hide, and do more of the same.
- Step2. Recognize that you have made it all up and then, to hide that fact, you start to relate to this made up set of rules like they are real and you have nothing to do with it.
- Tell the truth about it. Loosen its grip on you. Even if you can’t give them up, consider them as “It ain’t necessarily so”
That’s what I use… the structure of that sentence snaps me out of my self-righteousness, when I apply it.