“Instead of trying to make your life perfect, give yourself the freedom to make it an adventure, and go ever upward.“
— Drew Houston
SHOP THE LOOK:
Trench Vest – Amazon || Blouse – SheIn (only $16!) || Skirt – Topshop (similar) || Pumps – c/o Sole Society || Bag – Chloé Mini ‘Drew’ (Luxury Dupe) || Belt – Topshop || Necklaces – c/o Bauble Bar ( 1 / 2 ) || Lips – YSL in ‘Nude Beige’
Photos courtesy of Ali of Those White Walls
Earlier this week I posted this quote to Instagram.
Now more than ever I feel like a lot of us need to hear that message. To hear that perfection shouldn’t be the end goal. To hear that it’s ok to have a life that doesn’t look perfect.
As a blogger I struggle with this a lot. Perfection and success in the blogging world seem to go hand-in-hand… the more abstracted from reality a blog is, the more people seem to lap it up. The more editorial, professional, and visually engaging it is, the better, right? I have to almost laugh at the length some bloggers go to to get their content. Their lives are almost permanently sacrificed to the never-ending grind that is constantly producing new and relavent content.
It takes me back to the days when I shot magazine editorials in college — we’d have a hairstylist, a make-up artist, an assistant, a marketing manager, and a wardrobe stylist all there for one shot of one girl in a dress. It was a lot of work for one shot, really. And while I loved doing shoots of that nature, there was so much of each image I created that felt like a farce. It wasn’t real. The model’s zit would be removed post-processing. Her hair couldn’t possibly do that naturally so we added extensions. Lashes not long enough? Let’s add some fake ones. Hell, why not even bring in a dermatologist and give her a botox injection so we don’t need to photoshop out her minuscule wrinkles, right?
We have an obsession with fakeness and “apparent” perfection in America don’t we? When I look at the celebrities and idols we prize the most, most of them are plastic surgery powerhouses who undergo innumerable processes to keep them looking like that. *Cough… Kim K, anyone?* It’s something the average person can’t even see (my grandmother was in shock when I pointed out how many of her favorite TV news anchors have had extensive work done on their faces) let alone afford. What happened to embracing your flaws? Embracing your chaotic, often imperfect, says-the-wrong-thing-at-the-wrong-time, loves-unconditionally-regardless-of-how-many-wrinkles self?
Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels like we’ve gone a little off the deep end with our pursuit for perfection?
Whatever happened to just making life an adventure? A constant work-in-progress?
My photographer father always said “if you don’t hate the work you shot 6 months ago, you aren’t growing” and I’ve always loved that mentality. While it’s so easy to play the comparison games in the blogging world (“how does she have more followers than me?”, “I wish I had her wardrobe budget”, “if only I were 10 lbs skinnier”), the one and only person you should be comparing yourself to is YOU.
Ask yourself:
Do you LOVE what you’ve produced this year?
Do you FEEL yourself improving?
Are you GROWING as a person?
Focus on moving ever onward and upward in this journey of life and stop focusing on being so perfect all the time. As humans, we are flawed beings from the start, embrace it, love it, and LEARN from it! It’s really all a girl can do!
