I had a much needed reality check the other day, and I feel like I should share a bit about it with all of you because I have a feeling some of you may be dealing with similar distractions, and life is too short not to work on your junk, no?
Yesterday morning I got to sip coffee, eat some yummy breakfast and catch up on life with a dear friend of mine. We were talking about my business, and I brought up how a lot of times I feel discouraged when I look at people that are my same age or younger with much larger and successful styling businesses. We discussed my "competitors" a bit, and then, not as directly as I'm putting it, my friend challenged me by posing the question, "How do you really know that they're doing better than you?" I replied, "Because it seems like it online. I mean, they have a lot of advertising, they are hiring an assistant, etc." Well, it turns out my friend actually knew this specific competitor a bit more than I, and mentioned that this person had not made a profit until VERY recently. I was pretty surprised by this because everything online made this fellow stylist seem like she was larger than life.
AND THEN it occurred to me how much I rely on social media, blogging and websites to tell me about a person, and furthermore, make judgements about their success. I suppose this gets down to the golden rule of not judging a book by its cover, right? Heck, in fashion people do this all of the time by judging outfits, and using the silly logic that if you dress well your life is great or you're SUPER talented. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!
Comparison is a dangerous battle many of us fight DAILY - no matter what your age is, where you live, or what your profession is. I LOVE social media because I love communicating, but it definitely can paint a false reality.
So, for those of you that may think of me as put together, raking in the dough and always picture perfect, let me be the first to tell you that I have PLENTY of flaws, I don't always have the best outfits, I'm have MAJOR hatred toward my hair these days and my life is not always a walk in the park. Moreover, I can be a workaholic, lack follow through on many ideas, and I swear in the car a lot.
So, there you go! Let's stop comparing and just keep our eyes focused on the true prize. Your ultimate prize may look different, but mine is deep relationships with God, my husband, my family and my friends. Success in fashion is just icing on the cake.
