You can craft a great life, and I hope you do, but it won't be perfect. It won't even be your ideal version, whatever that picture is. There is too much beyond our control, too many contributing and disrupting factors, too many people with too many other perspectives.
When you drill down to your daily experience, most days don't measure up to the ideal version you'd like to experience. It doesn't mean the day was awful, just that it contained imperfections.
Sometimes it's little things like being unable to find a parking spot, schedule changes, or a below-average meal. Sometimes it's bigger things like a canceled flight, losing a client, or dealing with a difficult teammate. Sometimes it's the biggest things like a lack of purpose or happiness, a broken relationship, or feeling overwhelmed by what's going on in your life or yourself.
Not only is it ok, but it's also normal. Everyone shares this experience in their own lives.
Put on your analytical lens for a moment and ask, "What is a reasonable expectation for how much of my daily experience will align almost exactly with how I want it to go?" Now put on your emotional lens and ask the same question.
Whether you look at it rationally or emotionally, if you answer it honestly, you'll reach the same conclusion. On most days, most things will range from slightly to significantly different than you expected or would prefer. If your experience is better than that, I am thrilled for you.
For the rest of us, we experience a daily dynamic of people, places, priorities, and processes that combine and interact in imperfect ways. That is the landscape we navigate and attempt to create something great. We try to craft it in our homes with our families, in our businesses with our teammates, and in ourselves with our choices.
That is life. There is beauty in imperfection, but that's not the whole story. There is beauty in how we choose to see imperfection and what we choose to do with it.
Answer the call. Do the work.
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