You're still enough

You’re not defined by what a stranger thinks in a single moment’s interaction. You’re not who your boss imagines you are in a yearly review. You’re not even the person that your mother thinks you are—although your mom is probably close. And, you’re enough defined by the best creative thing you could ever do.

Everyone around you has a glimpse of the true you; a piece of the picture. But you’re so much more than any definition from another person, even if they’ve spent a lifetime around you.

And that’s a wonderful thing. You can shift, change, and be so many parts at once. You have the ability to care deeply about one thing, while knowing just enough to get by in another topic, while still surprising and delighting in ways completely unexpected.

That also means you can’t be defined in a single box by a person with a clipboard. Society has built a hundred means of measurement. Some are useful, but none are complete. You're expected to weigh yourself against others—metaphorically of course. And that’s ok sometimes. There’s times where a boss or leader figure needs to measure your output—whether for work, sports, health, or myriad other use cases. Those measurements may or may not be accurate, and they might even be necessary to see how you compare against someone else to land that job, get that spot on the team, or be involved in a group that you’re hoping to join.

But that measurement is as faulty as the humans creating the definitions.

It’s helpful at times. But it’s doesn’t define you. It doesn’t have a whole sense of who are you. And in some cases it’s flat out wrong.

Sure, you have to live in this world. And that means getting in line at times, fitting in, and sometimes just doing whatever it takes to stay afloat amidst the chaos.

But, more often than not there lies exists opportunity to step outside the bounds of any definition, to do the incredible, the crazy, the unexpected. That’s why you’ve been placed on this earth, and we need more of that from you. We need to see your art, your laughter, your sorrow, the special thing that you alone offer. We also need to see you, because you matter.

You had it at some point. It was there. You knew you were here for something amazing. But through countless queues and weigh-ins you’ve been forced to compare yourself against others. Little by little you’ve been wittled away until you feel that you’re the perfect average no one wants. That’s not true. You’ve got something exceptional, something unexpected, something that deserves to be seen.

Perhaps you’ve been shut down, laughed at, told you’re not enough. Perhaps you’ve compared yourself against others one time too many. What you have doesn’t cut it. Someone else did it better, faster, funnier.

You still matter.

So go figure out what you want to be in this world. And be kind to yourself if it doesn’t happen right away. A lifetime of shutting yourself down isn’t undone in a day.

Maybe most will never notice, but allowing your whole you to step out will be noticed by at least one person—you. And that’s enough, because you’re enough.