In the world of social media and constant exposure to the lives of others, we are CONSTANTLY comparing.
Comparing our bodies, our views, our lives, our personalities.
We allow our worth to be tabulated by likes on a social media page or comments on a picture.
We worry more about what other people think of us than what we think of ourselves.
We want people to see us as beautiful, worthy, and capable. We want to be “in”.
And, if we aren’t careful, we will start to believe that there is only one mold worth being in. We will compare and conform until we feel like we are what the world wants us to be.
And when we’ve found this perfect mask to wear, we feel threatened of anyone that tries to expose us.
We want to appear like we have it all together. Or if we don’t, we want to find the faults and flaws in others to prove that they don’t have it all together either.
When we feel threatened by another woman, our first instinct is to try and find ways to pick her apart. Because “no one can be that perfect”. We frantically search for a weakness, a flaw. Anything that we can judge her for.
We try and go head-to-head with her and her accomplishments.
We carefully hunt for any scrap of imperfection.
But if we’re constantly competing with other women, we will never be happy.
Because there are no winners that way.
We all have our own gifts to offer to the world. We all have strengths and weaknesses.
The only way to truly move forward is to be proud of our strengths while growing from our weaknesses.
The only woman that you should be competitive with is yourself.
Be better than her.
Be forgiving of her.
Be stronger than she was yesterday.
Be proud of her, weaknesses and all.
As for those other women?
Support them.
Compliment them.
Help them.
Build them up.
Respect their differences.
Because if we empower ourselves, we give other women permission to do the same.
And, if we can all stop comparing ourselves to each other and embrace the strong individuals that we are, we pave the way for women to start encouraging each other in the same way.