Mini Brain Dumps

For the most part, people are encouraging. I would argue that most people won’t tell others to give up on their dreams. The person who does tells us to give up the most, though, is usually ourselves.

We create expectations, timelines, and self-imposed pressures that make us forget why we even started in the first place. And when we don’t reach the goals we’ve set for ourselves then we consider ourselves to be failures.

It’s true, we really are our worst critics.

We’re far less lenient with our own mental health, with taking a break, yet in the same breath we wouldn’t think it unreasonable for someone else to do the same. In fact, we’d likely encourage it.

We, as humans, are hypocrites.

We live inside our own heads every second of every day. We can turn the phone off, step away from others, escape the world. You can’t run away from yourself.

Our failures replay endlessly in our minds. Right before bed, we cringe at the words we said when we were thirteen, over a decade ago. Things most people have probably long forgotten.

And yet, we praise perseverance.

College admission essays ask about adversity and the challenges we’ve overcome. Interviewers ask us about our mistakes. In life, we celebrate the lessons learned from failure. From not giving up.

And I guess the lesson isn’t that we shouldn’t fail, or stop trying. But that life is all about learning. Learning to let go of something that is no longer serving you. Learning from mistakes made and hoping to never repeat them. Learning that you shouldn’t let the opinions and judgments of others impact your own life.

I will never be perfect, nor will I ever claim to be. I make mistakes. That’s part of the human experience.

But sometimes, I just wish my mind would shut the hell up.