Being Me

I thought of various titles for this blog. I started with Being Bullied, and then considered Being Disrespected, but realized that what I was really searching for was Being Me.  Who am I? What matters to me? What's important to me?

For as long as I can remember, it's been important to me to be my own person.  To be independent. To do things my way. Ironically, I see that all the time in my grandson. He always has to be responsible for what he's doing.  I guess he gets that from me.  As I got older and took on work responsibilities, it was always important for me to take responsibility for things that I was involved with.  I've always been that way about life in general, whether it be work or family.  In fact, when family and work coincided, this took on a life of its own.

The challenge comes when the goal tied to this level of responsibility are either too broad, too high, or just simply unattainable.  It's always been easy for me to set lofty goals in triathlons or running races.  There's no consequences to not achieving them.  In work and in life, there are perceived consequences to not achieving goals. I say perceived because everything is relative.  We can only achieve what we actually achieve.

I saw a quote today from a 100 year old man who said, "You do the best you can. And the things you can't do anything about, don't give any thought to them." That's how he lived a minimum stress life.  You do the best you can.  Those are important words to live by, especially when it comes to being me.