I consider myself to be a very patient person. I'm patient with my friends, my family, my colleagues—I'm patient while waiting for a red light to change, and patient when the bank representative puts me on hold for 13 minutes. But I'm not patient with myself. If I do not learn something quickly, or I do not consider myself to be "good" at an activity, I throw in the towel almost immediately (it's why I don't play tennis or pool). This desire to improve by leaps and bounds has been challenging during meditation month. I expected that the more I sat, the easier it would get—actually, I thought the more I sat the better I would get at sitting. But so far it has been a roller coaster of good days, bad days, and worse days.

Clearly, approaching meditation as something to get "good" at is not working. So my goal for the next week of meditation is to take each day as it comes, without context or expectations. I will try to approach practice with a sense of play, an opportunity to challenge myself while also being patient as I develop a more skillful practice. It's not about being the best—there's no such thing when it comes to meditation.