Don't be good, be decent

 When I was younger, I was idealistic, much like most my age, but maybe more lol

I will tell myself "I will be a good son, good husband, good employee, good father, good friend"

Those are good intentions, but as I age and experience life, I have come to temper my ambitions. 

No, I haven't become a bad person lol

But, I am, somewhat more pragmatic and practical.

You see...the word "good" is very heavy. It means perfect, no mistakes, no errors, morale high ground.

It is not realistic at all, and to hold myself to such a bar, its being unreasonable to myself and others around me. 

No one is perfect, but we can all strive to be "decent"

If you want to be the "Good" xxx, it means you will be miserable since its an ideal case. More so, those around you will be miserable due to your pursuit. 

Now, I strive to be a decent husband, decent father, decent son, decent friend, and in general, a decent human being. This isn't lowering the bar. In fact, it is raising the bar. Because decency is not easy, but its actually reachable. So now, I have no excuse to not reach it. Compared to "Good", which is perfect, there is always a way out..."that's ideal case, not possible, so give me a break".

So, let's hold ourselves accountable by striving to be decent people. We will have mistakes, We will have our demons. But we strive to minimise those to our best efforts. We don't consider success to be 100% elimination of these faults, that would be impossible and too easy to discard responsibility as an excuse.