Kerri On Down The Road

Going back to school later in life and juggling studies with work and regular day-to-day demands has taught me the importance of managing expectations.  And the hardest ones to manage, I find, are my own.  The expectations I place on myself are much more rigorous and demanding than anything anyone in my life would place on me, and that is likely because it is so much easier for us to be our own harshest critics and judges.   When I first started school, I set an expectation for myself to aim for straight As throughout my undergrad.  I managed to earn "good grades" in high school and started my undergrad journey with similar marks, much to my surprise and delight.  Then the inevitable happened...I fell short of the mark, and did it ever sting.  That sense of failure, the knowledge that this standard I had been imposing on myself was not going to become a reality, and there was nothing I could do to change that.  I mean, I guess I could have gone ba...

 As hard as it was to watch my eldest prepare to leave and start the next chapter of his life, it allowed me to watch a life transition in process.  Being able to see the trees while standing in the forest provided a perspective on how one can effectively manage change without becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of decisions and choices that need to be made.  What struck me from the start was how he prioritized and determined what needed to happen, and then simply did the thing.  It can be so easy to get caught up in minutiae and uncontrollables while navigating through a transition period.  I have often found myself falling victim to "analysis paralysis," which brings any and all forward motion to a grinding halt. At the same time, I wrestle with small (and often most insignificant) details.  It can feel like I am doing meaningful work as I busy myself with these plans, only to realize later on that I could have made much more headway had I focused on...