Day 24: My Top 3 Worst Traits

This post was so easy to write.  Being a recovering pessimist, these are the things that fill my mind during down times.  Though I will tell you it was rough to stick with three.  And the three are ugly.  I mean it.  This is not pretty stuff.  But I'm not holding back - this is the real deal.

1. I care WAY too much about what other people think about me. I think there is a healthiness to being mindful of what others think. It can help keep you accountable when you are pressing toward a goal. It can help you be considerate when you are working to serve others. But I take it way past healthy and into the tragic, dark depths of obsession. Literally. What do my in-laws really think about me? What does my boss really think about me? What does the lady in the aisle behind me think about how I just disciplined my child at the grocery store?  Seriously - I think it's a disease. I recently read this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt:

“You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”

It made me feel a bit better.


2. I have trouble letting things go. I still have hurts from a decade ago that I haven't fully been able to kick.  I so admire people who can just bounce back.  I want to be able to forgive and forget, but I often can't get that forget thing down.  Not cool.

3. I am critical of people I don't know and love. Someone will walk by in the mall and I will be like, "She should not be wearing those pants," like I'm some expert on fashion who has never made a clothing faux pas. Or I will come home after school and be like, "You will not believe what this parent did with their kid," and then rattle it off, acting as if I know all the circumstances that went into that parent making that (wrong) decision. Or I will be like, "That child didn't say thank you," because my child always uses his manners (ahem).  I do come by this habit honestly, but it is no excuse. My husband is the exact opposite of this and he is so good about calling me out. I am grateful for his gentle reminders that I have not been appointed high judge over all fashion, parenting, and manners, or anything, for that matter. The world is full of screwed-up people (of which I am one) who are just doing their best.

Ugh.