Good old Punxsutawney Phil will make his annual appearance on Thursday, and while I’m usually ready to burst into tears if he sees his shadow (indicating that winter weather will continue for six more weeks), this year we’ve had a surprisingly mild winter in Boston. Very little snow, just a few days where the daytime high has been below freezing, far more sunshine that we’re accustomed to—I really can’t complain! Six more weeks of this would actually be endurable.
So since I’m not all that invested in Phil’s antics this year, I started thinking about the other cultural association we have with Groundhog Day: the movie. More specifically, the idea of doing things over and over again until we get them “right.” There are so many things in my life that I wishI could do over—to be able to say the right thing (or at least take back the very wrong thing that I said), to take action (or not), or even just to think differently about something. And since I struggle with being a perfectionist, it’s easy for me to get stuck in a pattern of berating myself for my (many) mistakes. I tell myself that it’s a way for me to make sure I don’t screw up in the same way again, but I’ve come to recognize that really it just keeps me mired in guilt and self-criticism. Those are nasty voices to have in your head, and I’ve been working over the last few years to extend the same grace to myself that I so readily give to others. It helps that my husband is good about letting me off the hook, and that I believe in a God who’s really big on forgiveness. Still, I’m definitely a work in progress! Do you struggle with being your own worst critic? How do you overcome that tendency?
Leave a Reply