In today’s world, it seems that everywhere you turn, someone is telling you another way for you to grow. There are endless “life coaches” selling programs and courses. Never-ending books about how to change your mindset and your life. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to be healing all the time.
When did we stop being grateful for where we are, what we have right now? By the same token, why aren’t we allowed to just be happy with who and where we are right now?
Of course, if you have anxiety, depression, trauma, etc., that’s different. Options like therapy, meditation, and journaling are not wrong to do. In fact, in those situations, they’re encouraged! However, if you’re content and satisfied with where you are, it’s okay to just be there. You don’t always have to be growing, healing, or working on self-improvement.
While social media can be a great thing, I think that it’s also left us with a need to constantly chase “more.” More money, more friends, more clothes, more travel. And when we see these influencers telling us that if only we follow the same program they did, or read the same book, or listen to the same podcast, we can live just like them, it’s easy to fall into the trap. But the reality is that that is not true.
The idea that constant self-improvement can be damaging is not a new one. Other writers have discussed the same topic over the past few years. A Time article cites a study that evaluated levels of satisfaction over ten years. During that study, they realized that those who predicted that they’d be in, more or less, the same position in the future were actually happier than those who had overestimated their position in the same amount of time. So what does this mean?
By not constantly focusing on self-improvement, you are allowing yourself to be present in the moment. You are giving yourself permission to live free from feelings of needing to be perfect all the time. You aren’t putting so much stress on yourself to be someone different, better, instead of just honoring who you are today. Instead of a perpetual fear of failure or feeling like you aren’t good enough, you get to just be happy with who you are. And that sounds pretty good to me.
So while personal growth has its time and place, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t need to be a constant. You can change and evolve through experiences without even trying. But, you don’t always have to be on a journey to be someone other than who you are… because who you are is already enough.