Good Enough?

“You are good enough as you are. You have nothing to prove to anybody.” — Maya Angelou

Chances are at some point in your life, you have asked yourself the question, “Am I good enough?” It might have been just an hour ago.

It sucks, doesn’t it? Feeling like you’re not good enough, no matter how hard you try.

Photo by kazuend on Unsplash

Being good enough is a big topic for every human. Many problems in our lives boil down to the belief that we are not good enough.

How often are you acting out of fear of not being good enough? Do you try to please others to show them that you are good enough, though at the expense of your authenticity?

What does it even mean to be good enough? Can you ever be good enough? Or better yet, have you ever not been good enough? And good enough for whom?

Who has made you believe that you are not good enough? Who has made you believe you have to prove your worth?

When you don’t get the validation or acknowledgment you have hoped for, it can hurt. It can hurt really bad.

Yet, at the same time, it’s liberating. An Illusion has been unveiled and you can see more clearly.

You are attached to validation telling you that you are good enough. That is until this validation is ripped apart by someone or something, and you are back in the process of trying to regain this validation.

It’s a vicious cycle.

What this really shows is that the only person that needs to recognize that you are good enough is yourself. Only when you know that you are good enough, can you see that being good enough is irrelevant.

Then you’ll realize that being good enough was never the goal. You’ll accept yourself either way — being good enough and not being good enough. It doesn’t change who you are deep down (who exactly that is is a topic for another time).

When you no longer try to validate your worth, you can get to a place of freedom — the freedom to make a complete fool out of yourself without caring what others think and whether you’re good enough or not.

Start this process by observing that scared and insecure part of yourself that wants to be liked, praised, acknowledged, and loved.

Compassionately embrace this part, but let it know that it will no longer control your life because you can see it. Your awareness of this part is freedom from its control.

Ask yourself where this grand illusion of you not being good enough has held you back in life, where it has led to inauthentic behavior and actions. And then tell yourself: “No more!”

You are and always have been good enough or, in other words, you have never been good enough. It’s only the world that wanted to make you believe that being good enough is important — good enough to be able to adapt to all its craziness that is.

There is nothing wrong with you. You were born innocent ready to be true to yourself until the world convinced you that you need to fulfill its expectations, live your life according to its standards, and thus make an ass out of yourself.

This is your echo reminding you of your innocence. Come back, come back to the beginning, and reclaim your birthright.

You don’t have to fight for a place under the sun. You can live life your way. There is nothing you have to be, do, or have.

You are imperfect perfection in the process of being perfected.

No matter what you do or not do, you can’t fail at life.