Here’s a little nugget of wisdom for you. You’re not perfect!
I mean, you’re lovely, don’t get me wrong, but perfection is unobtainable I think. I hear my canine friends talk about how their humans expect them to be amazing with other dogs, with other animals, with children and with other humans – I know that children are human, but sometimes they do seem to be another species completely.
Some of them even want us to be amazing with cats. Come on! They can’t be serious, can they?! Even cats?
I have never met a human who is amazing with all other humans and all other animals. You only have to go for a ride out in the car with my human and she starts barking at somebody in another car.
Let’s be realistic about our expectations for a minute.
We are all a work in progress. All of us.
Every day, we need to be kind to ourselves and remember that we’re doing our best.
As a reminder, here are Three Ps of human training that I have devised after careful observation of numerous perfectly imperfect humans.
Firstly, we have PATIENCE. Go easy on yourself. Take a moment to look at how far you’ve come. You might not be exactly where you would like to be, but getting stressed out about it isn’t going to speed up the process, is it? It takes time to achieve what we want to achieve in life and that’s ok.
Secondly, we have PERSISTENCE. If you know what you want from life, then taking positive steps each day will ensure you get ‘there’. I hope you know what ‘there’ looks like? Just keep going, but do it with a smile. ‘There’ won’t be much fun if you’re stressed, tired and poorly.
Thirdly, we have PERSEVERANCE. This is about overcoming setbacks and staying focused, motivated and determined when it all goes belly up. Which it will, from time to time. I reckon that’s just a test of how badly you want to get ‘there’.
So, if you bark at someone, make a mistake at work, drop something or don’t tick everything off your to-do list for the day. That’s ok. We really are all a work in progress.
If you’ve ever tried to teach my canine friends anything, you’ll know that the Three Ps work for us too. If you’re patient with us, we enjoy learning with you. We need you to teach us every single day, through the way you interact with us. We know that there are always setbacks but we know you’ve got this. If you can muster up the energy to be kind to me and my canine friends, then you can definitely muster up the energy to be kind to yourself.
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