In the world today, the media does a wonderfully horrible job at telling us that we'd be happier if we were anyone other than who we are. Surrounding our every turn are advertisements promoting the new this, the new that, the new 'one thing' that will make your life better. We're encouraged to change who we are to meet a norm. Unfortunately, these norms are seldom, if ever, based on reality. They send girls chasing after an ideal physique of a Photoshop model instead of celebrating the gift that they already are. They send boys chasing after a mixed ideal of either hyper or hypo masculinity, instead of allowing them to find their own path. In reality, none of these ideals are true.
When we look to what the world of advertising is doing, we easily see that it's all about consumerism and selling a product. The tragedy in all of this is that to sell the product, they must first reduce an individual to feeling like they're lacking, inadequate, substandard, or simply not worthy - not without their product. People are shunned for simply being themselves, are told they can't be happy unless they change, will never reach that status of true belonging until they have arrived - with the help of their product. It would seem that the culture almost demands that we forget who we are and be what they tell us we should be. So long as they make their bottom line, what do they care? Let me tell you, they're flat out wrong.
I'd like all of you reading this to take a moment today and look in a mirror. When you do, I want you to think about one simple truth. In the whole of humanity, in all that there ever has been, and all that there ever will be, there is only going to be one of you. You are a miracle by all considerations of the word. Millions and millions of tiny circumstances had to align perfectly in order for you to be standing in that mirror in this exact moment. When the advertising world tells you you're not enough, be bold in the light of celebrating being exactly who you are.
Here's the problem with the logic of 'you're not good enough without'. If you weren't good enough before the product, the use of their product is still not good enough, because another product already told you that without it, too, you're not good enough. It's a philosophy that can never be fulfilled. You'll never have 'it all', which means you'll never arrive, which means...
Instead, today, shrug off the world that tells you that you're not good enough as you are. You are the only one of you that will ever exist. Take the power of your life back, celebrate being you - the amazing, powerful, wonderful you that only you can be.
Challenge Accepted
Justin