Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Input vs. Output

This was going to go up on my diabetes blog, as it starts out on a diabetes note, but I feel that the lesson carries through to other parts of life, so I decided to post it here.

This morning, I sent a text to a number of my contacts, most of whom have diabetes, saying:
"Good morning! This is to inform you that SD will be having perfect numbers today. If not, it will not be due to a lack of effort on her part. Thank you. :)"
I got varying responses, from "sweet dreams" to "good luck" to "me too" but I have a feeling my message was misunderstood.
A diabetes educator once told me that when patients are embarrassed to show their blood sugar records to the doctor, it shows one thing: they didn't try their hardest. If I try really hard, I test my blood sugar as often as I should, and I count my carbs and take my insulin the way I should. No matter what the result of my efforts is, whether my ensuing blood sugars are the way I want them to be, I can be proud knowing that I did my best.
So last night, I decided to do this will be my strategy for the day. It was a good thing, because I woke up with a high blood sugar. Normally, my reaction would be: well, it's too late to have a good-numbers day so why bother.....
But today I decided: Any lack of perfection is not due to a lack of effort on my part. I tried my best. And that is all I need to know. Sure I would rather have had my blood sugar rest on an even plateau of 100 all day, but if it didn't...well I am not ashamed or embarrassed. I did my best.
And that's how it goes in life. Things don't always go as planned, yet, we can't let it get us down. We control one thing only: our input. If you try your hardest, and fail nonetheless, that is not something to be ashamed of.
So that is my new project. I will be trying my best, to do my best, and I will be proud of the results, no matter what they are.


(ETA: I sent it to four friends who don't have diabetes, but knew that I was struggling to motivate myselft and have better control. Probably the fact that it was early in the morning and I was checking off my recently texted contacts had something to do with it. Oh, and I figured that the more people that know about this, the more embarrassing it would be for me not to comply.)

7 comments:

Zeeskeit said...

Well put! I needed a bit of that inspiration today! (and every day)

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

First I notice on the bottom of the post where it says who its written by it says: "The blame for this post goes to" umm that doesn't sound very good. You should think better of yourself. It doesn't have to be a bragging remark, but it can be neutral.

very true, I like your attitude!
All we can do is try our best, and not to get depressed.

Inspired said...

so is the positive attitude the secret to your 5.7 A1C ;)?

Inspired said...

I get your point: Even with the maximum effort we're not guaranteed to succeed. nevertheless, we still need to try and not get discouraged.

"You never fail, until you fail to try"

little sheep said...

SD, you didn't warn me...

Something Different said...

Zeeskeit- thanks. :) Me too.

JSB- I don't necessarily see blame as a bad thing. That's just my way of talking. LOL.
Thanks I'm working hard on it. :-)

Insp- I dunno. I feel like that was a fluke.
Yeh, I've been super high the last few days and I am not getting discouraged.

LS- warn you bout what?

little sheep said...

ech, forget it