Is your life this perfect? (Photo cred: Juan Cruz Mountford)
Do you compare yourself to others?
Years past I remember getting Christmas cards in the mail and looking at pictures of people in their Christmas photos. This was probably when I was young and newly married. I remember being amazed at how people were able to make their lives look so amazing. My life felt like a complete and utter trainwreck in comparison. Then, December would end and Christmas cards wouldn’t coming for another 11 or 12 months. I had time to regroup and return to my daily life without the reminders of “what my life should be” arriving in the mail each day.
Social Media is like getting a Christmas card in the mail every 10 minutes
Now it’s 2018 and with social media this is something that we see happening multiple times a day, every day. Social media provides a platform for continuous exposure to people’s photos about their vacation, new car, fancy dinner, new baby, and so on. The same happens with television. We look at people’s lives and we look at the best of their lives. We see these people leading lifestyles that just aren’t realistic and we’re comparing ourselves to them all the time. Then we listen to news stories or read articles picking apart those in the spotlight for flawed fashion, relationship problems, and scandal. Hungry wolves wait on the sidelines to attack anyone who isn’t up to par.
With all of these messages, it can seem like the thing to do is portray yourself as having the perfect life with everything: everything is in order, everything’s arranged, and things just look amazing all the time when the reality just isn’t always that case. And, if reality *is* that case, those living that reality might be stressing themselves out trying to make their lives like that all the time.
Take a step back and focus on the life in front of you, not on your screen
One of the best things you can do is unplug. Unplug from your phone, social media, laptop, tv, and magazines. Unplug from the digital “Christmas cards” in your life that you take in and interpret that you’re just not being enough. Just take a break. Spend time really thinking about and investing in what is important in your life.
Is it important to make sure that you present the best life to everyone else? And if so, at what cost? Are you living your life for the next Instagram post or the next Facebook update? What would it be like to let go trying to live the life you think you need to have and instead begin living the life that you desire?