Norway and Perfectionism

I just have to say how incredibly sweet is my God! For those of you that don't know what I do, I am in charge of customer support and sales for our company. We have been so busy since I came to work and as a result, I have not really undergone any formal training. As such, I lean mightily on the Lord to help me in all of my work. I learn quickly and can pick up on things by listening to King. Things are going well, but they are not always easy. Each time I answer the phone, I pray first. This teaches me humility and reminds me that each thing I do in life is enabled by the Lord.

I think I have mentioned that we sell software to 75 different countries and most of my telephone conversations originate in the States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the UK. I got a surprise today when I answered the phone and a gentleman from Norway was on the line! A first for me. What a nice guy. I very much enjoyed helping him and walked away from the conversation totally amazed at how tender God is to give me new experiences in such a gentle manner. I could have answered the phone to an overseas call with an angry customer. Not so.

I have done a number of new things today. This is remarkable for the simple fact that I am a perfectionist. Perfectionists (this one anyway) like to do things perfectly. Every time. New things are very tricky because it's almost impossible to do a new thing perfectly. Thus, new things are avoided until the point in time where it may be done without flaw. As a further consequence, these actions (or inactions) would lead observers to assume that the perfectionist is a procrastinator. Actually, a perfectionist does not like to procrastinate because procrastinating causes a chaotic situation of unaccomplished things "lying around" in life. This leads to frustration with the chaos and an attempt to clean things up, resulting in the inevitable ... facing the undone new items. And we are back at the beginning.

I began work in March and have "seeped" into the job that I have now. I do not keep track of my hours, I just work as much as I am able. (I work about 50 hours a week.) Each day I do some new thing. Today there have been several new things to accomplish. In the beginning of April, I was still functioning in the above pattern of perfectionism. Over the months I have learned to just do things. It doesn't matter if they are perfect or even wrong. Just try. I have learned that I really can do new things. As a result of being forced out of my comfort zone, I have learned that I can do many things I once thought were impossible.