What we are often not told growing up is that there will be a bunch of good days, but there will also be a lot of bad days, and then there will be a good amount of really sucky days. Some days will be hard. And that’s okay.
I think it is easy to get upset with ourselves for having bad days, especially if the day was fine just a few minutes ago, or if you had the time of your life just the night before. Bad days happen. Within those bad days, is when we learn and grow and become equipped with tools for future bad days.
I tend to still struggle with my perfectionist mindset. I have improved immensely over the years, but sometimes I still struggle, and that’s okay. Part of my perfectionist personality, is that I want to please everyone and make sure they like me. It happens to me all of the time, and especially after presentations or workshops where I receive evaluations, sometimes I cringe and overanalyze the few that say negative things, in a sea of positive feedback. We can be our own worst-critic in that sense.
It always hurts for a few days, and then I turn that pain and sadness into a mission. And I ask myself, how can I use this feedback to improve? How can I turn this negative into a positive? What next steps can come from this? Doing this has allowed me to see that just like life has good and bad days, life also will be full of people who like us and people who don’t.
But I think the most important thing is to forgive yourself for feeling bad if someone doesn’t like you, or if someone gets upset with you. You can feel how you feel about these things, you’re only human.
I think it is so important to know your worth, and then to multiply that by 1000. And its so important to be patient with yourself when you mess up. You aren’t always going to please others, you aren’t always going to get a perfect score. So instead, ask yourself how you can fuel any pain you might be feeling for feeling like you fell short, and turn that pain into a passion or a mission. Take the time to feel that pain, and then remind yourself that you can use that pain to elevate you higher, to reach your dreams, to do better, and most importantly, to be patient with yourself, to be kind to yourself and to love yourself, imperfect and all.
Xo,