#BeInspired Mondays with IK: Don’t Fret, you’re Doing OK

I believe we all know that no one is living the perfect life; the problem however, is that we are not yet living with that understanding, not when we are constantly being bombarded with information, photos, and stories of people living “the perfect life”.

You don’t want to get yourself worked up, melancholic and depressed simply because you feel you are not doing better than you are at a particular point in time, considering the fact that we, or society have come up with several individuals who are “living the life”.

This article doesn’t want to tell you that “the people you admire are going through their own challenges and battles which can be similar to or peculiar from yours, so be strong and live your life”, which I believe you already know. It’s just to tell you what the headline says.

You have your shortcomings, you have your challenges and battles, but you also have your strengths and areas when you win. It is OK to be OK. However, ‘OK’ should not be seen as a goal, but as a result – your present reality, one you want to improve on. If you understand this and strive to do better, then you are doing fine.

The goal should be to become more successful than you were yesterday. Don’t focus too much on what other people are doing. When you do, it should be to take lessons for your own life and not to strive to do better than them.

For example, if a girl with 95% score takes first position in her class in School A, and another girl, (in the same subject, taught with same curriculum and given the same test) in School B also takes first position but with 45% score, they’ll both receive the prize of coming first, but one person obviously did better than the other.

So, do not focus on doing better than the people around you, focus on doing better than yourself. Well, this is cliche though, but we need to constantly remind ourselves who the competition really is – You!

Don’t play down your achievements in the guise of being humble and modest. Celebrate them! Nobody is saying you should block your street oh. Note them and be excited that you succeeded.

These days, society demands an almost unrealistic level of exceptionalism from us, no thanks to social media and all the information sharing platforms that are made up of curated content. Also, because these platforms are so many, only the extraordinary (curated content) catch our attention, then we tend to, consciously or unconsciously, judge ourselves based on them.

Relax, you are doing OK. Learn to enjoy your life. Choose to be happy and comfortable with where you are and what you are doing, and make yourself your only competition. Cheers!