We All Have Flaws… What Matters is What We Do With Them

<p>Jeannie Gaffigan is a control freak. She takes charge. She cares about the little things and getting those things right. She always has. It’s hard to argue that this part of her personality hasn’t served her well. She and her husband, the comedian Jim Gaffigan, have created an enormously successful partnership that birthed not only multiple television shows and comedy specials but five healthy, well-adjusted children. </p><p>You can imagine, you have to be a stickler for details to pull all that off. The problem was when three years ago, a routine doctor’s appointment revealed a pear-sized tumor on Jeannie’s <em>brain</em>. A 10-hour surgery successfully removed the tumor, but not without a series of life-threatening complications, a few more surgeries, and a long road to recovery. Life does that to us. It takes the balance we’ve created or the systems we take comfort in and it dashes them to pieces. </p><p><a href='https://podtail.com/podcast/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast/episode-1057-jeannie-gaffigan/'>In a recent interview on Marc Maron’s podcast,</a> Jeannie explained how this obstacle required her to re-examine her life and her need for control. She really had no choice. “I am a person who naturally sweats small stuff,” she explained. “I didn&apos;t change my entire personality. I still sweat small stuff. I still get irritated by this and that. But I have a different level of awareness that it&apos;s small stuff. It doesn&apos;t have to ruin my day. I see the big picture.” </p><p>It was at this point in the conversation that Marc Maron, the host, responded about how he has managed this side of his personality as well: </p><p><em>“I understand that, you know, to take that pause… And the weird thing is, if you have that personality, you know you&apos;re going to do it. You&apos;re going to freak out. And it&apos;s really about trying to nip it in the bud a little bit. Like in the middle. or, it seems hard to do it before because sometimes maybe it&apos;s necessary. Maybe that&apos;s how you do it. But there&a