Let's Trade Fixing Ourselves for Accepting Ourselves

This past year, I've felt a lot like a souped-up Ferrari with a banana in my tailpipe (or what I imagine one might feel like, that is). 

I've been up to my curly locks in content, ideas popping like goosebumps, but translation has felt like untangling a raccoon caught in barbed wire.  

So, I did what any reasonable person would do—I tried to fix myself. Naturally, the situation called for more meditation. 

I decided to take my walks in silence rather than blab on the phone, multitasking, or listening to books and podcasts.

In other words, my ill-guided ego felt that a flood of clarity and brilliance would release if I demanded my scattered part be present instead of…well, scattered.

It was like shaming a leopard for wearing spots two days in a row.

Invariably, I'd catapult into my week, booked solid, kicking myself for squandering the only free day I had that week to “produce.”

Here's what I've learned (and you likely may not like to hear): our personality parts don't go anywhere. 

My scattered part, your anxious part, the part of any of us that second-guesses everything? With us to stay. We came in with them, we're going out with them.

 Trying to eliminate that part of myself was merely my mind's grand scheme to mute a part of me it thinks we need to hate.

So what if my scattered part likes a good gab or binge-watching Netflix gossipy documentaries? Let Her!! 

In fact, when I do so without judgment, she settles down, allowing more productive parts to come online.

Think of your egoic parts like toddlers. Don't try to reason with them mid-meltdown. Let them have their emotions (and maybe a snack), and they'll stop putting gum in your hair and start to play nice.

Your perfectionist part isn't trying to torture you; he's trying to make sure you don't put junk out into the world. Your insecure part is trying to make sure you don't get hurt. So why not show some respect?

Here's the new call from the huddle:, and focus on managing our parts rather than trying to extinguish them.