Whenever I focus on getting one specific thing done in a day, it seems I am almost always doomed for failure. This method might work if I didn't have any obligations (such as a dear little one), but as it is, I see whatever it is that I want to get done slipping through my fingers over and over again.

Like today.

I only wanted to get the house looking cleaner than it did yesterday (I had actually made some good progress yesterday). I focused on the counter tops in the kitchen. They are cluttered with mail, papers, random stuff, dishes, food, etc. It's horrible. If I could just clear those off, I would have that peaceful feeling of accomplishment.

But you know, first there was breakfast, and then there was the dishwasher to be unloaded before I could put more dishes into it. Then there was my son needing this and that, and then I just had to take a break and read for a bit. Then there was snack/lunch time, which of course made the kitchen messier, so I had to clean that mess up. Not to mention my son threw bits of his snack all over the floor, so I had to sweep that up, and then he insisted on helping me sweep the entire floor (it encompasses the whole bottom floor), and how could I turn him down? Then my son knocked over a candle that I had just snuffed out, spilling wax all over the table. I wanted to scream. I think I did.

Of course I wasn't going to be happy about the wax spill, but what made it ten times worse was that not only did it create a nasty mess all over the nice, clean table that I had worked so hard for, but it also stole away time to get those dang counter tops cleaned.

I've just now cleaned up after dinner, and those counter tops still aren't cleared off. I don't even care anymore.

I mused as I was cleaning after dinner, wondering about this and how it fits into the big picture of things. Life. We can't force things in life, can we? It doesn't matter how badly we want it, we can't force it. Life is going to happen, life is going to get in the way...but life happens to be a good thing, you know? It's okay to let it happen.

I know that counter's going to get cleared off one of these days. But instead of pushing for it to happen in one particular day, I think it's better to just keep working at it, bit by bit, pressing onward with it. One day things will go in my favor and it will get done. Or I'll just have worked at it so long that the mess slowly chips away. So with life.

I know I can't be perfect. Well, I actually I believe it's possible, but that it would probably take eons to achieve. In this life, I can't be perfect. But I can be better. Recently I realized that the way to tell if we are doing "our best" is if each day we do something that is, at least, a little bit hard for us. If we've done nothing in the entire day that wasn't the least bit difficult, then we haven't progressed.

Perhaps there is a time and a place for "pushing" but for our every day lives, I think that "pressing" is much healthier. "Pressing forward" with our goals, keeping them in sight, ever inching forward when we can, but not trying to do more than that. It's a healthy pace, one that we can keep at.

I have to keep this in mind as I work on my spiritual and self-discipline goals. How silly would it be for me to forget all that I learned about not doing things that make me unhappy!