Being Real Isn’t Perfect

I am not sure when it happened but some time over the past few decades, there has been a message that being real isn’t enough, that we need to perfect to be worth something. Let me tell you right now, we were born to be our true unique self in all its realness not cookie cutter versions of each other.

With so much at our fingertips, it is so easy to be influenced by what we see on social media which is ‘perfect’ snapshots into the people we follow lives but we forget that what we see on our screens can lie. That happy smile might be covering up a broken heart, that slim figure might be the result of an eating disorder and that loving relationship might be anything but loving. We only see what they want us to see, usually trying to showcase this ‘perfect’ life.

I know I have on many occasions looked through my feed wishing I looked like this person, or was a bit more outgoing like another person or had the opportunities that someone had, and this made be over critical about myself while creating unrealistic expectations. Somewhere along the line I decided I wasn’t perfect enough and that I wouldn’t be accepted for who I am.

Through my self development journey, I realized that having this mindset of comparing myself to what I deem to ‘perfect’ was only causing me to miss out on so many opportunities. I challenged myself to go outside my comfort zone and do the things I was putting off until I reached that ‘perfect’ image because perfect doesn’t exist. I let myself buy that bikini i was scared wouldn’t look right, I laughed a little too much, I said the wrong thing, I tripped over my words, I went to a dance class with no coordination because I decided it is okay, those moments are what make our lives real and memorable.

Everyone has different perceptions, thoughts, opinions and this means no one will have same idea of what perfect is so why should we strive to be perfect when we can be unique and at peace with who we are.

Please remember you were born to be real, not perfect.