In a world where we are inundated by idealized perfection perpetuated by social media, TV, advertising, etc. sometimes it’s hard not to hold ourselves up to some unrealistic standard and ask ourselves the question: “Am I Enough?”. I myself have had a bad habit of measuring my self worth by what I accomplish and the level of success of those things. It’s taken a lot of work to get comfortable with who I am and recognize that I am not what I do. But I still have days where I can’t help but compare myself to others, especially those who are doing the things I want to be doing, successfully. As a goal driven person, I’m always thinking about what I can do differently to reach those goals
Don’t get me wrong, I feel incredibly blessed by my life, my amazing partner, my family, and the beautiful country that I live in, but sometimes I feel like I don’t always understand my role in it or where it’s all leading me to. With confusion, the comparison game is an easy one to fall into. Even when we know that no one’s life is perfect, occasionally that feeling of not being enough slithers its way into our minds and starts dropping question marks at the end of our resolve.
So what can we do with this? Lately I’ve been intrigued by the principles of minimalism. We all know it to be about anti-consumerism, but the devil that is consumerism is just a by-product of a more toxic equation. I think true minimalism is more about intentionality.
Now, I don’t consider myself a minimalist, but I think the idea it’s based on is genius. Create space for what you actually value, and not just in your physical surroundings. When we apply this idea to our entire lives we can spend less time worrying about things we don’t need, stop comparing ourselves to others, and also spend more time looking inwards to find out who we actually are, and therefore what matters to us most.
I’m the kind of person who can only have so much on my plate before I become completely overwhelmed and distracted. I often give too many tasks the same level of importance, and then make myself too busy to do the things I really want to do. So I sat down at the beginning of this year and asked myself how I actually want to spend my time. What could I do to support those things better?
It turns out what I wanted most was freedom. Space. A safe space to be more exact. I wanted limitless creativity and I wanted to be supported - not judged - by myself. I needed to accept who I was and run with it, come what may. I wouldn’t trade my journey for anyone else’s, I just needed the pressure I put on myself (and my creativity) to ease up a bit. Sometimes the entrepreneur life is stressful, as you often have to wear a lot of hats and balance a lot of things. Taking the approach of minimalism to my to-do list meant I could be more intentional about what I was doing with my time, and focus on being the best version of my authentic self.
I believe we all have a purpose, and that there is a bigger picture to all of this that goes way beyond all the things we worry so much about day to day. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t easy to get caught up in the race. What is important to you? What things actually bring you happiness? Whatever those answers are, trust them, support them and leave the comparison game for someone else to play.
You are enough.
Some great resources that have really help me lately:
On minimalism: Check out @thelaminimalist on Instagram.
On creative living: “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert
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