The Best Way To Grow As A Person Is To Take A Step Back

We live in a society that tells us that growth means improvement.

We’re sales pitched this idea that in order for us to grow as individuals, we have to strive for greatness.

We are told on a daily basis that we are not good enough the way we are.

We need to be better than we were yesterday. We need to look better. We need to get better grades. We need to do better at our jobs. We need to act better. We need to eat better. We need to think better. We need to evolve into the best version of ourselves that we can be. We need to be stamped as “new and improved”.

But the truth is, growth doesn’t always mean improvement.

We are humans, not machines.

We don’t need to be constantly fixed or upgraded.

We aren’t apps that need to be updated every 10 days.

We don’t need to make sense all of the time.

Sometimes we have feelings that we wish we didn’t. Sometimes we have thoughts that we probably shouldn’t. Sometimes we eat Nutella out of the jar with a spoon until we hate ourselves. Sometimes we hide out in the bathroom at work longer than we should. Sometimes we don’t get our C+’s posted on the fridge. Sometimes we make mistakes left, right and centre. Sometimes we say things at the wrong times.

Sometimes we just fuck up.

But guess what?

That’s okay.

Because we were never programmed to be perfect.

And we never will be.

We don’t need to strive for perfection in order to grow into the people we were always meant to be.

Because, sometimes growth means believing that we are enough, even when no one else does. Sometimes growth means accepting the ugliest parts of our hearts. Sometimes it means embracing the flaws that we cannot change. Sometimes it means finding beauty in the mistakes that we will always make.

Of course we all want to become the best versions of ourselves, but we are forgetting that in order to do so , we must first find ourselves.

Because growth isn’t progression, it’s regression.

It’s taking a step back and being proud of everything you’ve already achieved.

It’s learning how to find yourself once again amongst the debris.

It’s peeling back the masks we wear to make others happy.

It’s forgetting who society wants us to be and remembering who we’ve been all along.

It’s understanding that things won’t always go our way, but giving it our all anyways.

It’s taking apart the puzzle of life we are told we need to solve and loving ourselves for each and every piece that makes us who we are.