It is amazing how when you set your mind to do something, not only can you do it, but before you know it, you gain momentum and begin to see yourself moving closer to your goals each day. It is amazing how if you tell yourself and believe that your own journey on this earth is exclusively yours, and not a journey you need the input, validation, or praise from others (family, friends, strangers, etc.), that your journey really ends up being exclusively yours. This I believe correlates to accepting that your road is imperfect and that you are entitled to make your mistakes and figure life for yourself.
Indeed, did you know that it has been shown that one of the reasons suicidal rates continue to increase in society is due to the expectation of social perfectionism?
For example, in a 2017 study, researchers at the University of Western Ontario “interviewed friends and family of people who had committed suicide and found that 56% of those deceased exhibited a “perceived external pressure to be perfect”.
Sources: 1. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jopy.12333 2. https://www.independent.co.uk/…/perfectionism-suicide-link-…
Perfection will make you take a problem and issue that you can easily self-correct and turn it into a weapon to beat yourself down with. Perfection will make you believe that if the public image you present does not run through a filter, and does not show you as being so well put together, then you have failed miserably. Perfection will have you staying and tolerating toxic friendships and relationships you should have ended eons ago. It’s the idea that even though those in your life are not showing up for you, you still feel that you must show up for them.
Why do we seek social perfectionism? What is that thing or who is that person that tells us we must be perfect? That we can’t fail? That we cannot take off the masks and let people see the down to real us?
This need for perfection is a conversation that needs a lot of time to unpack…
#Stepintoyourgreatness
Republished article supporting mental health and wellness awareness.