Life can be hard, and nobody’s perfect.
These are two lessons I learned a long time ago that I need a regular refresher on.
If you’re anything like me, you expect a lot out of yourself. You’re harder on yourself than anyone else is. It’s not failing others that concerns you so much, but failing yourself.
And among that concern, life seems to be consistently trying to take you down a peg. There’s always at least one nagging thing that prevents life from going really smoothly. Honestly, it prevents a smile from always being on your face.
It could be anything that brings you down, really –
Perhaps your music isn’t just right.
Perhaps you see someone else’s project and feel perpetually behind.
Perhaps you’ve got a stack of books and projects that you haven’t touched in a while.
Perhaps you never seem to execute on any of your great ideas.
Perhaps you just feel creatively and artistically “stuck”.
Perhaps you’re dealing with a difficult relationship.
Perhaps you’re dealing with a death in the family.
Perhaps you don’t know if you’re making the right choices, or you don’t know what choices to make to succeed.
Perhaps all of your thoughts, worries, stress, and concern is just all too much.
Perhaps you’re just tired.
All of these things, all of them…
They’re perfectly normal.
You’re not weird for experiencing setbacks.
You’re not a failure if you’d rather binge YouTube than work.
You won’t lose your creative abilities if you take a few days or weeks off to rest.
You can’t get everything perfect even if you tried – good enough is good enough.
You aren’t behind just because someone else succeeded – or worse, appears to have succeeded.
You’re not a horrible person if you find other interests and change your career or life path.
You’re not doomed to fail if you have to take care of yourself, or your family first.
In fact, you’re not doomed to fail at all.
You’re just like me, and you’re just like everyone else that you stare at online that you imagine to be extremely way more successful and better off than you.
I know you know this – but most of that nonsense is all a lie.
That being said, it’s hard to internalize that. It’s hard to believe it.
So here’s the next best thing I have for you to realize:
You’re constantly co-writing your own life story.
And if it’s anything that we both know about a good tale of fiction (or, even a biography) – it has its ups and downs. In fact, the down parts make the up parts better.
So despite the fact that you had no say of where your life starts or ends, and only have some say about the middle – you can control how you view the autobiography you’re writing in your head.
When you succeed – you’re simply at the beginning or end of the current chapter in your hero’s journey.
And when you experience setbacks – internal or external – you’re simply at the end of the 2nd act, where you’re supposed to experience a test, trial, or crisis of faith.
The important thing, regardless of where you are, is that you continue.
Your story is meant to be written, experienced, and shared with others. You’ve got a lot to do, and a lot to teach.
Yes, even the bad parts where you feel like none of it’s useful. We all empathize more with Superman when he shows in what ways he’s not super.
So, if you’re in a tough spot – be sad but don’t quit.
It’s normal to be frustrated. It’s normal to fail. It means you’re on the right track.
One day, when you least expect it (long after you care) – others will celebrate your successes and you’ll be really confused because to you it seemed like no big deal.
And that’s normal too.
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