More on bare minimum

What I also mean by letting the wheels come off, is to relinquish the desire to SOLVE EVERYTHING. I have a real tendency to try to fix things, whether it's my responsibility or not. Letting the wheels come off means learning to live with things being imperfect, even if it's a bit heartbreaking at the time.

You can only do what you can and sometimes I have to let go of expectations and roll with the punches a bit more.

Something about our culture (or perhaps just me!) means I have a desire to cope all the time. Craig touched on this theme in his post about Joy.

One example of this is that I get very stressed when I don't feel the dogs are getting enough exercise and stimulation. I feel like we have a responsibility to give them a minumum level of daily interaction, and sometimes this is hard to achieve, so then I feel like a bad and irresponsible owner. But I have to accept that sometimes they are just going to have to have a boring life because there's only so much I can manage. I can't solve this one, not in the short term anyway, so I try to accept it - i.e. let those wheels fall off for a while.

I guess the 'wheels' I find hardest to let go of are the ones where I feel they affect someone else. I'm usually quite happy to let go of things that affect only me.