Being a perfectionist is both a blessing and a curse! On one hand, it leads me to pursue quality because I am driven with attention to every detail. On the other hand, it tends to steal my joy and satisfaction with my work because I see all the imperfections. I have struggled with this as I long as I can remember. Maybe it stems from my personality type. Maybe it stems from my upbringing and being terrified to make a mistake for fear of the consequences. Or maybe it is a combination of factors that have influenced the way I think.
Once thought patterns are formed, whether healthy or unhealthy, they take up residence in our minds and they affect everything we do in our daily lives. They are like roads that have been cut out in our minds, leading us like a pathway to freedom or leading us into captivity.
So how do we know which road we are on?
Freedom brings hope, joy, gladness, and satisfaction in who we are. Captivity robs us of peace, and instead brings a sense of darkness, with thoughts that bring guilt, shame, condemnation, and emptiness. I have traveled the road to captivity for most of my life.
Once unhealthy thoughts are permitted to take root, they are like stubborn weeds that are difficult to pull out and they continue to spring up, if not entirely uprooted. Uprooting unhealthy thoughts and eradicating them from the soil of your mind is difficult, but it can be done! I am living proof of this!
Taking control of our thoughts is much like tending a garden. It requires a desire and commitment to plant healthy plants that will grow and flourish, while being diligent to uproot any weeds that try to take root. These weeds are often hidden beneath the foliage of the healthy plants. If you do not look deeply into your garden, it will not be long before the weeds re-establish themselves and seek to overtake everything else in the garden.
So it is with our thoughts! We must choose to recognize and uproot unhealthy thoughts as quickly as they come. However, recognizing and uprooting them is not enough to rid them from our minds permanently. We must go one step further if we desire lasting change. We must replace them with healthy thoughts, continually, or the weeds will spring right back to life again and nothing in our lives will change.
Remember, our minds are much like a garden! If we want healthy thoughts to grow and flourish, we must diligently look for and remove the weeds, then replace them with healthy thoughts, continually.
But don't forget the most important thing!
For gardens to flourish they need to be fertilized, watered, and placed in the light!
Blessings my friends!
