The Best Advice I’ve Ever Received

    

In honor of motivation Monday, I wanted to share some of the best advice I’ve ever received.

THE BEST ADVICE EVER RECEIVED

I cannot imagine being a teenager today and growing up in the world of social media. As someone who uses social media as a source of income, I know first hand the pressures platforms like Instagram can have on our minds… and our souls. I’m not bashing social media platforms.  I think they are a wonderful source of creative inspiration and a place to share our creativity.  But I also had the privilege, yes I said privilege, of growing up in a world where my self-worth wasn’t dependent on the number of likes I got or the number of followers I had.  I know my life will continue if Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube were to disappear tomorrow.

However, I’m guilty of falling into a few social media traps.  For example, comparison can be a dangerous game.  Sometimes I find myself comparing my life to others.  The things other people have, the places they go, or even the bags they carry.  At one point last year I got sucked in so deeply in the comparison pothole that I doubted my ability as a blogger to inspire people.  My biggest reason for ever starting this blog is to inspire others to be the best version of themselves and live the life they want to live.  This doubt left me heartbroken and immensely self-conscious.

A friend of mine had told me before that I compare myself to others much too often. I’ve been doing this my whole life and I figured it was just who I was. Until I realized how much it was eating away at my happiness. It was literally making me depressed, doubt my abilities, and lack motivation.

She said to me “stop focusing on what everyone else is doing and do your own thing. Put blinders on and just focus on creating amazing content.” Finally, FINALLY, I decided to take her advice seriously and focus on my work and no one else. What happened shortly after made life so much better…

It began by pulling myself off social media and taking in my actual surroundings. Looking up at the trees as I walked instead of having my nose buried in my phone. My breaks from work were spent organizing, cleaning out my closet,  handwriting letters to friends or researching travel instead of getting sucked into an endless pit of social media. How many times have you lost track of time simply by scrolling through Instagram? It’s scary how quickly time can go by!

I decided to create my own path instead of following the herds.  While everyone else seems to be using the same filters on Instagram, I created the colorful photos that I love and that are unlike anyone else’s.  I brainstormed fun blog posts ideas with visuals to accompany them. I started enjoying my beautiful city instead of always wishing I was someplace exotic. Bottom line, my life didn’t need to always appear to be on vacation to enjoy it.

I am also taking more time to acknowledge all of the things I have to be grateful for including my health, family, friends, business and the fact that I’m living in a time where I get to be my own boss. I mean, how cool is THAT!?  I may not be perfect or care to appear perfect on Instagram, however, I definitely have excellent qualities that I want to share with this world and all of you.  For starters, I can laugh at my own mistakes all day every day.

 Time to time I slip up and find myself once again comparing myself to someone else. Hey, I’m not perfect. It just takes practice to bring my focus back to my own ass-kicking (meditation helps a lot.) But I can tell you that I already feel a thousand times happier just doing my own thing. So I encourage you to do yours.

As always, thank you for reading and check out another Paris inspired look here. 
Laura

Shop My Look

Earrings: Tory Burch | Pants: River Island | Cape: BCBGMaxAzria | Top: Express | Hat: Dynamic Asia | Bag: Rebecca Minkoff Sunglasses: Prada | Shoes: ShoeDazzle

Photos by Felicia Lasala