Lessons

 I really admire tenacious people. My husband is one of these. You know, those people who don’t give up easily and power through a difficult task. 

I wish I could say the same thing about me. You know, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

I’m one of those who prefers things to be quick and easy. If I find myself struggling I generally just give up and move onto the next thing. In high school I dropped out of the leading role in our One Act Play because I felt so uncomfortable. I’ve regretted that decision to this day. 

I’m one of those people who pretty much crave the next thing. I changed grade levels regularly over my teaching career finding myself ready for a new challenge. I’ve bounced from denomination to denomination over the years never quite content to stay in one place.  If I don’t something new to work on I find myself restless. 

I also have learned, to quote my high school friend, Barbara, “It’s hard to have fun with it, if it’s frustrating.” In other words, if it’s too hard or takes too long to complete, I’m out. 

At the beginning of the year I started a new crafting project. I had seen something called Woobles come across my feed. It is a crocheting kit made for beginners, and looked awfully cute. 

Now I already knew the basics of crotchet and decided this would be a perfect way for me to learn how to follow a pattern. The reviews were glowing and everyone seemed to love their Woobles kit. Except apparently me, once I got started. 

From the beginning I struggled to follow the video instructions. I ended up starting over a couple of times. Although my dinosaur began to take shape, I was not enjoying any of the process. It was not fun to me. 

I struggled for a few weeks, reluctantly returning to my project. I kept thinking it was building character for me to not give up, and stick with it. 

Until one day I just said, “Forget about it!” and put it up. I haven’t looked back since.

As much as I have encouraged others over the years to try new things, I felt a little hypocritical. Who was I to promote this when obviously I couldn’t even finish a silly crocheted dinosaur. 

However, as I really thought about it I realized that it wasn’t the finished product that was the important thing here. It was the trying of something new. 

Just because you attempt something new doesn’t automatically mean you are going to like it. I’ve tried jigsaw puzzles, knitting and baking, but none of these ended up being something I really enjoyed. 

That being said, it was the experience that was the more important thing. What is the old saying? “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Perhaps the real lesson learned here is that if you never tried you might miss out on something that you really do enjoy. 

Rather than trying to change my natural inclinations, I’m going to stop being so hard on myself expecting perfection. 

Instead of looking at my Woobles experience as a fail, I’m going to chalk it up as a win in the column of “Things I Don’t Enjoy Doing.”

To quote one of my favorite authors, Gretchen Rubin, “Onward!”