Meg vs. 30: Thoughts on failure and success

It happened. I turned 30. And as you can observe if you click on my tab, I came up short on my 30 goals for myself, and only finished about 2/3 of them. My normal self would say, "Why, that is 66%, which is a D." But with all the other stress going on (I have been on the phone all morning trying to get people over to the house to get things fixed for the tenants, while in the meantime my children run amok and my house is still 1/3 in boxes), I am rethinking how I will define success on my goals.

It was a success for me to put my goals out for other people to see when I came up short.

It was a success that I often chose to throw my efforts into supporting my husband and spending time with my kids instead of compulsively following through on everything I had wanted to get done.

It was a success that I survived a year where we had a baby, finished renovating a house, and moved several hundred miles, and still made sushi and rode not one but two horses.

And it was a success that I realized that next time I should try to make myself have more fun instead of pushing myself to "achieve" more. I already stress out over what I am an am not accomplishing. In my 20's I served a mission for a year and a half. I learned Japanese and spent summers with my grandmother just like I wanted to. I got two degrees and my husband got one and is in the midst of another. We got married, had three kids (who, I might add, are still surviving our parenting), and bought a house which we renovated and turned into a rental. Why should I feel like what I'm doing isn't enough? I need to push myself to do more to enjoy life! So my 40x40 list (which I already started compiling a while back, because that's how I am) will hopefully be a lot more fun and less stressful.

So here is to failure, and more successes like this: