FTT: Rescue Dogs & Acceptance
My family always had dogs growing up.
Two of my best childhood memories were when we added our two rescue mutts, Rocky and Baxter, to our family.
Rocky was a stray who was found running alongside a stranger on the street and Baxter was tiny little hound that we rescued from the pound.
Both of them were incredibly cute and extremely loving. They were also an absolute handful.
Rocky used to run laps around our house, which was so much fun! Except that while he was breaking the world record for fastest dog to run 100 circles around the inside of a single-family ranch, he would also bark and pee.
Baxter used to bark at potential intruders, which was super comforting! Except that he had nocturnal tendencies and preferred to bark when no one was outside and our family was trying to sleep. (After dozens of midnight trips outside in my boxers, pocket knife in hand, I promise there was no one out there.)
Looking back I remember how frustrated I would get when they misbehaved and how much I was looking forward to them growing out of these phases.
But I also remember how forgiving I was with them. I don't know if it was because they were dogs and they didn't know any better or because my connection with them was so strong that I loved them unconditionally.
Whatever the reason, I remember having two seemingly contradictory feelings towards them at once:
- I accepted them for who they were and
- I wanted them to be better
And they did get better. Rocky became fully potty trained and stopped peeing in the house and Baxter grew out of his nighttime-barking-at-nothing and only barked at delivery drivers during the day.
While I noticed it with Rocky and Baxter first, I also have both of these feelings about friends and family. At the same time, I both (1) accept them for who they are and (2) I look forward to their progress and improvement.
My love for them isn't conditional upon them reaching goals or breaking records. Do I want them to do both of those things? Absolutely! But not because I need them to in order for me to love them more. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
It's because I love them so much already that I want for them to succeed so badly.
It's seriously awesome.
And it brings up an important point:
We deserve to treat ourselves with as much grace as we treat our friends and family (and dogs).
We're allowed to have big goals and high aspirations. We can work towards becoming better people and making millions of dollars. And while we do that, we can also be accepting of who we are right now and grateful for the money we have at the moment.
The truth is, we have to be... because the goal posts will always move.
If we wait to accept who we are until we become the best version of ourselves and we wait to accept love until we've reached all of our goals then we're going to be waiting our whole lives.
Just like Rocky and Baxter, we'll get better. We'll become better people and we'll reach our goals. As long as we're not laying in bed all day it's almost inevitable.
So let's enjoy ourselves in the meantime.
Accept and also strive.
Live your life to the fullest,
Chris