07/08/2019
Instagram vs. Reality (swipe ➡️)
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📷 Certainly you have observed how Instagram photos depict what seems to be a perfectly manicured life - comprised of endless lattes, late night drinks, beach views, fiery romance, rock solid friendships, and blissful enjoyment.
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💑 Every relationship is picture perfect. Failure does not occur. Financial woes do not exist. Heartbreak is easily mended. Work obligations do not seem to be pressing or even present and adventure is always a snapshot away.
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🎨 The realities we construct on social media are broad brush strokes which highlight mere moments - carefully arranged to reflect only our most appealing attributes. As we scroll through, feelings of inferiority, loss, or FOMO might consume us - if we believe these facades really reflect Other People’s Lives.
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🎭 In truth, these masks we wear online - these false realities we construct - do very little to celebrate our shared humanity. Rather, they provoke the loneliness, isolation, and fear that exists within all of us just underneath the surface. We become characters on a stage we created and if we slip out of character for one moment, we fear being labeled a fraud.
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🧗🏻♀️I share this humorous side-by-side of Instagram vs. Reality in order to spread a deeper message: that perhaps the lives we masquerade on social media add to the feelings of loneliness and needing to prove ourselves rather than having the desired effect of validation, affirmation, and self-confidence.
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🏆 I certainly get the appeal of wanting others to think we have it all together. As a coach and brand storyteller, I want my clients to trust me and believe that my experience, expertise, and skills are worthy of their investment. However, I have found that people are drawn to us not for our pretense or projection of our “best selves” onto every exchange, but rather for our vulnerability, humanity, honesty, and approachability.
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❗️I am a coach, yes, and I am very good at what I do. But I am also human. And I have fears, insecurities, struggles, and challenges just like anyone else. Yet my life resonates the most because of these experiences, not in spite of them. May we not hold back our truest selves. @ Denver, Colorado