When life gets in the way

Sometimes even with the best intentions, life gets in the way.  We don't meet a goal, or something gets compromised in the name of something else.  When this happens, it's a good time for us to take a moment, breathe, and look at the process of what happened without beating ourselves up.  What came up and how did we set our priorities?  Did we let something go because of an expectation someone else had of us?  Did we sacrifice our own plan because we placed more importance on making someone else happy?  Or did we think, "I can do it tomorrow when I have more time"?  It's really common to put things aside when life gets busy, so realizing this is the first step toward being compassionate toward ourselves.  Next, we can look at how our values were represented in what happened.  If our ideals were compromised, then consider it a learning experience for the next time.  If we let one thing go in place of another but our values remain intact, then consider it a valid exercise in prioritization, perhaps even learning something about ourselves and our own personal belief system.  When life gets in the way, it's always a great opportunity to learn something about ourselves.