I think many of us desperately need to internalize this – a lesson I’m still learning after years and years of therapy, inner work, and skin changes…to be good enough.
We live in a world that constantly tells us we’re not enough. Not thin enough, not wealthy enough, not successful enough… The message is always the same – you need to do more, have more, be more.
But you are already enough. Right now, in this moment, you are enough.
Sometimes being good enough means doing the bare minimum. Waking up and going to work or school even when you don’t feel like it. Doing the necessary tasks and chores to get by. That’s good enough.
Not showering or getting dressed because you have a limited amount of energy and you are putting everything into survival mode… Putting off a project until you have the energy to actually give it the attention it deserves, is good enough.
For example, I put off posting on YouTube because the timing wasn’t right, I was too busy, my life has changed a lot in the last year and a half, I’ve changed a lot, my interests have changed, and I needed to take some time to deal with that. And I plan to come back, but making videos again feels like starting over.
I want to keep things real. I’m tired of the cookie-cutter social media content creator who has a formula because that’s what the algorithms want. I didn’t start doing this to get famous or become an influencer. I started this as a way to express myself and overcome my insecurities, and for a year and a half I wasn’t able to put my energy into it because I was getting used to a life I never had before, and for too long I felt guilty because I felt like I was neglecting myself and my individual dreams by focusing on a real-life partnership, but the foundation I just recently created is the foundation I needed to rebuild everything from the ashes. AND THAT IS GOOD ENOUGH.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that it’s okay to take a break, to prioritize one thing over the other because it wasn’t until I completely stopped feeling guilty about not doing anything with that space that I started to feel passionate about it again. It wasn’t until I completely detached myself from the project and the idea of the project that I was able to find its beauty again and sit down and write a script.
And maybe, after so much effort, you fly by on the Internet as if you never existed. You can pour your heart out by writing, painting, singing, or making a video essay – and hardly anyone will notice. But if it helped you get something off your chest and made you feel good about what you’re putting out there… Those two likes or shares? They’re good enough.
Being good enough has nothing to do with achieving monumental goals or living up to society’s or anyone else’s definition of success and worthiness. It’s about accepting yourself as you are, honoring your needs, and understanding that your inherent worth is not dependent on productivity, opinions, or accolades.
The sooner you realize that you will never check off every box on the endless lists of “shoulds” and “musts” that society imposes on you when you are born, the sooner you will live more freely. There will always be another goal to achieve, another accomplishment to unlock, another prize to win, and more to accumulate. But your value as a human being is inherent and unconditional, and therefore good enough.
Mel Bruja 