#deareveryone

People will say that it’s okay to not be perfect, and they’re not entirely wrong. However, perfect does not always mean flawless, perfect can mean complete, so I believe people should be perfect in one way.

Be a perfect you, nothing else, just try your best to be a perfect you. That will mean different things for different people, but it’s important to understand.

Understand that you’re not going to be perfect in everyone’s eyes. Understand that you might not be perfect in your own eyes yet. Understand that things can and will get better if you try to make them.

And please, understand that somewhere out there, someone will love you, what kind of love will differ, but love will find it’s way to you, or you will find your way to it.

You can be perfect without being flawless, and you can’t be loved without being perfect or flawless.

I felt inspired after having a moment with two of my youth kids this afternoon. I couldn’t help but think about how fast time can go by so quickly. I felt the nudge and the need to reflect on the revelations I have received from what ended up being a fruitful conversation on adulthood.

Youth is the sowing season of our lives. It is the time when we exude so much energy and idealism, and we think we have so much time to capture all the dreams that we pray for. However, once we step out into the real or out of college, we would suddenly be encumbered by the pressure to prove ourselves and quickly carve our way to success. The ball of time we thought was secure in our hands suddenly drops and goes rolling towards the unknown and we have to chase it.

No. We want to chase it back to our grasp. Then we realize - life is not as long as we thought it was. We’ll most likely spend around seven decades being alive, two of which we have already consumed in school. The next decade would then be spent finding ourselves, building a career and looking for love.

The next decade after that would be about either strengthening whatever we’ve built the previous decade or alter our course altogether. And before we know it we’re saying, “Life begins at 40.” By then, we only have around three decades left to finally settle down and enjoy whatever it is that we’ve come up with.

Please excuse this deep spoken [written] word narrative. I’ve been thinking so many things as the new year approaches and as I work to get goal oriented and savvy I felt it was time to throw this out there, and just maybe you can relate.

As an occasional nighttime blogger and daytime professional I fear constantly that I don’t have a grasp on what others truly feel about what I say, do and post. Do people like me? Do people care about my content? Is my voice being heard? Sometimes these questions yield silence on the other end, and we are left to fear the worst… that the answer is a resounding and painful no.

The more I think about it I somewhat want to say “who cares,” but I know deep down that I do. I want to help people, inspire them, help them find meaning and coach them to confidence and of course be appreciated for who I am as a person and creative. I want to find my own meaning in the things that I love and be able to share them in such a way that builds a community.

I guess what I’ve realized mostly during these self-reflecting conversations is, that I don’t care or shouldn’t, but more so we should not focus on if we are not liked, or immediately heard, or if people relate to our content because we are putting ourselves out there.

The vast majority we typically feel fear of or negativity from would not be willing to put themselves out there for critique or feedback to grow. They are afraid to be different, have their own voice, brand their own style and make their own rules. However we are out here doing just that.

So what I’m proposing to you, is let’s make a promise to not focus on the negative things but rejoice in the journeys that these risks take us down. Let’s keep being confident in ourselves and the positive messages we are working so hard to spread.