
Every now and then, I go through phases of wanting to improve myself, where I take mental clippings of things that inspire me and strive to attain them, or at least copy them to the best of my ability.
I identify who I want to be (at least for the moment) and trawl through Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, to see how it can be done. It’s this weird, heart-in-the-throat kind of feeling. A kind of excitement, a feeling that I am going to be better than ever, that I am going to be the IT girl who can do everything and anything.
Perfect hair, perfect face, perfect clothes, weight, work-life balance, friends, relationships. It all becomes a plan and within a few hours, I feel inspired and motivated, determined, to be this new person.
And then, it stops. Just like that.
For two reasons.
The more I pursue it, the less I feel like I have it. And then I realise, it’s the chase that makes it so exciting. The possibility of what could be, not of what I am. The more I “perfect” myself, the less perfect I feel. So I begin to realise that this excitement, the heart-beating moment, is nothing more than that. It’s the thought of being something, not actually being it, not temporary. It’s an excitement for what could be and can’t be replicated.
The other reason comes has its roots in this article on why women will never believe that they are beautiful, as it made me realise why so many of us give up on ourselves. We are constantly shown with society’s image of what is beautiful, often leading us to believe we, our beauty, is second-rate. I realised that no matter how much I “improved” myself, there was another woman doing my dream life better, making me feel nothing more than a wannabe, a hopeless trier who, well, tries too hard. At that point, my desire and inspiration shuts down. And I’m back thinking that I’m just floating through life.
So I’ve decided to change my perception instead of changing myself. In that, instead of changing my face, my hair, my clothes, my whatever, I change my attitude. Be the personality I want to be and not the tall, skinny, Normcore lookalike – do people still use that word? Be a little bit crazy, be nice, be reliable, funny, and sometimes serious. Those things usually make more of an impact on who you are and the people you interact with than what you wear. I know I’d rather be told I’m funny than pretty. I’d rather be the spontaneous one than the one with the perfect shoes. Whilst I still love fashion (and I’ll still trawl Instagram for inspiration), I’d rather sacrifice a good outfit for a day of getting rain-soaked in the woods. Memories are made from your personality and how you interact with others, not on what you wear or how you look.
It reminds me of these words by Rupi Kaur
Maybe striving for personality “perfection” (within reason) is perhaps better than striving for visual perfection? Because it’s a lot harder to find someone else doing you better than you.
Thoughts?
I actually relate to this so much because I find myself feeling like I want to “improve” myself a lot lately, to the point where I get so worked up about it and start being self-critical. I do the exact same thing, I think if I wear different shoes or buy a new coat or get a haircut then I will look more like I have my shit together and then I will FEEL more like I have my shit together, and that might work for about a week but I’ll only end up discovering something else that I need to change. I’m constantly trying to remind myself that it’s not about how other people perceive me that’s important, what is important is who I actually am as a person. Reading this just served as another reminder!
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I’m really glad this resonated with you! I can absolutely see where you’re coming from. And I feel a lot of it comes down to how we feel about ourselves and how ridiculously critical we are of ourselves. Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
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I can empathize with this article and it actually resonates for me. Most of the time, we spend our time comparing ourselves to others when what we really have to do is accept ourselves and be happy with it. If we are unhappy, then we have to change what we have to change. Love the poem, very inspiring!
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Exactly, if you can’t change things, change your thinking!
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Relatable post!
Great & powerful message that you’ve put forth here. ❤
Personality development is mainly what every human should strive for.
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Thank you so much and I agree – personality development is what matters. It won’t always be easy but it will be worth it
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Yeah it’s definitely worth it. 😊
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I am wowed… Such a great post
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Gosh, thank you so much!!
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You’re most welcome…. Are you on twitter
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Yes! @sineadaloftus
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Okay.. Thanks
Why’s the world a globe…. Dear it’s for connecting..
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agreed! Are you on it too? Have I followed you yet?
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Yeah am on it….its #ewonderhubblog.
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I guess so
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