{"id":185,"date":"2017-10-12T12:43:51","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T12:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=185"},"modified":"2019-12-10T08:44:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T13:44:27","slug":"identifying-our-might-as-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2017\/10\/12\/identifying-our-might-as-wells\/","title":{"rendered":"Identifying Our "Might as Wells""},"content":{"rendered":"

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Proverbs 28:13<\/strong><\/em>
\nI have listened to two impactful books this week.\u00a0 The first one is “Finish” by John Acuff.\u00a0 From a reference in his book I learned about “Black Box” by Matthew Syed.
\n“Finish” is what it says it is, learning to finish what you start.\u00a0 Whether it’s a weight loss goal or writing a book.\u00a0 It’s easy to begin, it’s hard to cross the finish line.\u00a0 I’ve struggled with obtaining my weight loss goal for years.\u00a0 I realized after listening to his book, I’ve been striving for perfection and not accepting my imperfection.
\nHis studies found most people quit on day two of their attempt to complete a goal.\u00a0 He called this day, “the day after perfection”.\u00a0 It’s the day you fall off the wagon of whatever it is you’re trying to attempt.\u00a0 For me, it could be eating a piece of cake when I’ve made the commitment to give up sugar.\u00a0 It could be not writing a blog when I’ve made the mental commitment to blog once a week.\u00a0 (Which is actually a goal I’m trying to accomplish.)\u00a0 Embracing our imperfections along the path to our goals helps us to ultimately complete our goals.\u00a0 I would call this, giving ourselves margin for error.
\nOne of the take aways from “Finish” is the phrase “might as well”.\u00a0 John talked about how when we fall off our proverbial wagon is when we use the phrase “might as well”.\u00a0 I already ate the cake, might as well eat the pie.\u00a0 I didn’t write last week, I might as well not write this week.\u00a0 He’s right.\u00a0 It is a quick identifier for the day after perfect.\u00a0 It is a great way to check yourself when you’re about to go astray.
\nInstead of setting impossible goals, I can still lose one pound a week if I eat a piece of cake.\u00a0 Just because I missed a week of writing doesn’t mean I have to give up completely.
\nPair John’s book with Matthew’s book, Black Box, which is all about learning from your mistakes, God willing I may just have some break throughs!
\nBlack Box, so far is comparing the healthcare industry to the aviation industry.\u00a0 It turns out, aviation has become one of the safest ways to travel because of the black box.\u00a0 Every accident in history has been analyzed.\u00a0 As a result corrective measures have been taken which have allowed for this to occur.
\nOn the other hand, when medical “accidents” happen such as making the wrong diagnosis, reading the wrong chart, operating on the wrong body part or giving the wrong medication, all which can lead to the death of the patient, it doesn’t get analyzed.\u00a0 It often gets tossed aside as “one of those things” or “it was out of our control.”\u00a0 Was it really though?
\nWhat I realized, as listening to this book, which by the way, I haven’t finished yet, still listening too.\u00a0 It’s the source of motivation for looking at the mistakes in these two industries which is drastically different.\u00a0 In aviation, when an airplane crashes the pilot usually dies.\u00a0 Powerful motivation to understand what went wrong for pilots because they don’t want it happening to them.\u00a0 In the medical profession however, when there is an “accident” someone else experiences the loss, not the doctor or nurse.\u00a0 Not quite as motivating for them to analyze what went wrong because it isn’t as personal.\u00a0 Obviously, I’m not saying doctors and nurses don’t care about the patients they lose, it just isn’t thought of the same way as the black box in airplanes.\u00a0 It is thought of as more individual, case by case, not as easily analyzed.\u00a0 At least that is how I’m understanding it so far, no doubt I could be wrong.\u00a0 What Matthew puts forth is it can be analyzed and learned from but the motivation isn’t there to do it.
\nAnyway, putting these two books together has given me a lot to think about.\u00a0 Instead of quitting the “day after perfect” I need to accept my imperfection as part of the journey to reaching my goal.\u00a0 By looking back and analyzing my previous failures, I can quickly identify my “might as wells” which will help me to attain success.
\nUnfortunately, accepting imperfections and analyzing past mistakes are not popular trains of thought.\u00a0 It’s hard to be honest with ourselves.\u00a0 It’s hard to shine the light into our dark places and expose them.\u00a0 Until we do, until we face our fears, we won’t reach the finish line.
\nGratefully, our light is Jesus,\u00a0 His love is unconditional, nothing is hidden from Him.\u00a0 He already knows our imperfections and loves us.\u00a0 He already knows our mistakes and forgives us.
\nChrist followers always talk about applying those principles to others.\u00a0 Isn’t it time we applied them to ourselves?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Proverbs 28:13 I have listened to two impactful books this week.\u00a0 The first one is “Finish” by John Acuff.\u00a0 From a reference in his book I learned about “Black Box” by Matthew Syed. “Finish” is what it says… Continue reading Identifying Our "Might as Wells"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1588,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/1588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}