Our power company is having a “Power Savings” event today from 4pm-8pm.
Game on!
I better get my laundry done before 4pm!
I better get dinner ready-to-go and in the crockpot before 4pm!
I better make sure my phone is charged up! Wouldn’t want to be caught needing to charge my phone during the “Power Savings” window.
Good thing we don’t have AC! That would use power … and we wouldn’t want to do that!
Good thing it’s summer (and still daylight in the evenings) … wouldn’t want to turn on any lights! Lights use power … and we wouldn’t want to do that!
The thing is it really truly doesn’t matter. But … after every “Power Savings” event I receive a text message from the power company letting us know that out of 100 similar-size homes in our area, “this” is how we scored. For some reason it feels like if we score 86th out of 100 homes in saving power it’s like we somehow failed! Obviously that looks to “everyone” like we’re people who don’t care about the planet or saving power.
Hence, the irrational drive to “score good” compared to all our neighbors.
It’s bizarre because our neighbors will never know how we “scored” on the “Power Savings” event. No one will know. It’s simply a way to encourage people to reduce power usage.
Yet for me it always feels like I have to score “good enough.”
Just recently our power company has introduced a new incentive to encourage people to save power: customers can earn bill credits if they save power “good enough.”
Oh I’m totally going to earn us lots and lots of bill credits by saving power!
I can totally do this!
The last “Power Savings” event was our first chance to try out this new incentive. I was on a mission to be “good enough” … so that I could earn bill credits!
That particular day it had been beastly hot – up to 95* F. We don’t have AC. But no fans! Fans use power … and I’m earning bill credits!
Also, no cooking dinner! Cooking dinner means using the microwave or stove … and that uses power. We cannot use power! Because I’m earning bill credits!
That particular evening hubby had a work event for dinner … so I carried my salad out to the front porch to eat my dinner on the front porch. Because of course we wouldn’t want to turn on a light inside! No lights! Because lights use power … and I’m earning bill credits.
During the “Power Savings” window there was literally no power used in our house other than the refrigerator and freezer, and the clocks. I was very pleased with myself at just how much money I was saving us by all the bill credits I was earning.
Hubby came home from his work event and flipped on the bathroom light to wash his hands. No lights! I flipped the light switch back off! I’m earning us bill credits by saving power!
“You know,” hubby joked, “it’s only going to wind up being 86 cents.”
“Oh, I know” I replied, “but I’m still saving us money.” Secretly, deep down, I just knew I was earning us lots of bill credit for all the power we were saving!
Several days later I received a text message from our power company letting us know how we did in the most recent “Power Savings” event:
42 cents savings! Hahahaha! That is totally hilarious! Especially after all the work I did to not use power for anything!
How often do we do this same type of thing when it comes to life itself. For some reason we put expectations on ourselves of how we need to “measure up” to some standard we have in our mind.
We feel like we need to be “good enough.” And if we aren’t “good enough” … we worry what “everyone” will think of us??
So we do crazy things in an all-out effort to be “good enough.” Just like I did crazy things in an all-out effort to be “good enough” in the “Power Savings” event. We put demands on ourselves. We try really hard. We make sacrifices. We do crazy things when it comes to those whom we love most – just like I turned the light-switch off on hubby when he was trying to wash his hands.
We work so hard! Yet for all our efforts, we don’t wind up with the results we were hoping for.
All our efforts of trying to be “good enough” don’t really accomplish much of anything at all, truth be told.
If you are trying really hard to be “good enough” in some aspect of life, might I encourage you to not put all that pressure on yourself. It’s a heavy burden to carry. And it will only wear you out in the end.
You are more than “enough” … just the way God made you.
