I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with some highly successful, beautiful and inspiring bloggers. I always consider myself lucky to be a part of this world, even in the smallest capacity. There were many conversations about the blogging world, and some themes stood out to me. It’s more competitive than you could ever imagine, and the worst part of the competition, is the comparison.
We’ve all heard the saying that comparison is the thief of joy, and I personally feel blogging is the epitome of the concept. There will always be another blogger, another post that does better than how you do. It’s hard to ever feel all that good about how things are going because there is always someone doing visibly better than you are.
I realized this long ago and had to really start setting parameters for myself on what I was looking at. I started to force myself not to look at anyone else’s posts. There were even a few times I unfollowed people who, for whatever reason, were bringing me down and leaving me feeling envious, and I don’t feel badly about it. I know that’s bold, but since when am I subtle?
It got me thinking of how this plays out in our lives in general. If you think about the things we surround ourselves with, how many of them make us feel less-than? Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram can do that in an instant. I pride myself on my account being relatable since I’m just like one of you. But it is easy to look at the big houses and fancy trips and feel that twinge of jealousy even though we know we don’t have the full story. I can even give a specific example from the Reward Style Conference.
Many of you saw the gorgeous pictures from one of the luncheons that were held. Fresh flowers, mimosas and giftbags. What you didn’t see is that it, was, FREEZING. Bloggers huddled under blankets, teeth chattering. I wound up not even going because I was freezing. That’s the stuff that did not make it to the feeds.
I challenge you this week to be bold. Think objectively about the social media personalities and accounts that bring you joy and help you feel less alone. Stick with those.For the others that are bringing you down or making you wish your life were different, I dare you to unfollow, and if you can’t unfollow, I dare you to stop looking. There is no reason to stick with something that doesn’t feel good to you, especially when we know so much of what we see isn’t an accurate depiction of what goes on.
The grass is greenest where you water it. If we spend more time on bettering ourselves and our own lives and less time on pining after the lives of others, we will be better for it. So here’s to not looking. And here’s to being happier because of it.
