Lesson 4: Good is better than perfect
I watched my 15 month old niece attempt to close every container she would get her hands on. Takeaway containers have especially soft plastic lids, making them tricky to push down without bending them. She spent about 10 minutes trying to close this soft toy container, which wasn’t designed to close after opening, it was really a single use container that housed her animal figurines. She tried and tried, and every time the lid would bend or the body of the container would bend, so the lid never sat on the container like it first did. After 10 min of trying, she closed the lid as much as she could, placed it aside and walked to a new toy to play with.
In this child is the wisdom to know that good is better than perfect. Sometimes perfect is not attainable, and we adults still try to push through to perfection no matter how tired and exhausted we are. And then we get totally thrown out of balance (the vortex).
If instead of trying to reach unattainable heights, we do our best and leave the task done well, we can go on with our life happily, without beating ourselves up for coming short. This child knows exactly how to follow her good feeling Source, she gives no attention to anything that doesn’t make her happy, regardless of what is going on around her. The more I watch her live and grow, the more I see how much wisdom children are born with, until we beat it out of them. And chances are she will pick up the container tomorrow and place the lid on correctly, having learnt something new, she will use it as an excuse to feel new levels of joy, the rest of the afternoon. And then she will divert her attention to something else just as interesting, and continue down this spiral of happiness over what seems meaningless to us adults.
In what ways can you be easier about your life? If only we could jump for joy over our daily accomplishments, life would be so much more delicious! I know I can certainly take more pleasure from the ever day chores around the house 🙂
If you haven’t read the first 3 Toddler Wisdom lessons, check them out here