Am I doing enough? Are you?
Enough or not?
Do you ever scroll through Instagram, Facebook, any form of social media and doubt if you’re doing enough in life? Wonder if you are failing and not doing enough? Ok, be honest, if not with me then to yourself. I’ve been there before, mindlessly scrolling through Instagram thinking I’m not where I should be, or that I have failed in my job or that I am not lean enough or just a dam loser. This was down to seeing what other people post about their accomplishment and outcome. What I found to realise and understand was that all we see is the outcome, the cooked curry without the preparation, the chopped ingredients, the added spices and so on.
Why is it that we so easily look at others and deem what we have done or where we are as not good enough? Why is where we are not good enough for so many? I did a little post on this too on Instagram – check it out https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfns-WjBVN8/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Been there, done that
Having done so much of that throughout my twenties and early thirties, I’d go in directions that I didn’t want to go down. I would take job roles that eventually would bore me and roles that I would do well at but without the inner fulfilment. What I would get out of it was external validation, status, money, compliments, recognition etc. This used to make me feel great, I would believe I am doing a great job, and mostly, I was, but I would continue and continuously feel I wasn’t. This was not all down to external factors however; I have since a very young age had something within telling me I need to do more and that I cannot rest on my successes. Is there more to this we could dissect, yes, highly likely but we will leave that for another day. Highly likely it’s because I’ve had to stand up tall from a young age, crack on with things and be ready for the next challenge or opportunity when it presents itself. Check out a previous blog i wrote about cracking on Believing the hype – Cracking on!
It was only when I started accepting where I was and what I had achieved, made me realise I didn’t need to compare myself to others’ success. This does change though when you look at others for inspirations and in a mentor capacity. Nothing wrong with that, I’ve done it my entire career. As long as it’s not compromising your awareness of what you are actually doing and what you want but also not burning yourself out mentally and physically
Pause
Taking a pause and reflecting on where I have come from allowed me to slow down, to debrief my achievements and be real with myself, but also plan my next steps. I stopped caring what people were doing on social media; I stopped caring how others looked compared to how I looked. Ultimately, the ingredients we all put / are given into the life we have, are different, our upbringing, our challenges through life, trauma etc so how we come out will always vary.
Quick take away; stop worrying what others are doing and how others look. You are unique in every way. You have your own past and what you don’t see is what others have been through to reach the outcome that you see on social media. There will be inevitable hard work majority of the time, there is no shortcut. Keep taking those daily steps and you’ll be that little bit closer. Do have a self-debrief from time to time and reflect.
