To Be Real

Those of you like me who grew up in the 80’s might remember the famous disco song with the same title. My friend Sue and I danced many a night away in our high heels and bright blue eye shadow to just such music. This blog is not about disco, however. Although I am now humming under my breath.

The title of this blog refers to the way social media encourages us to be “unreal.” Pictures and videos of perfection and success clutter the internet.  Thanks to editing and filters things always look good. Of course we are careful what we share. Only the highlights. Never the “behind-the-scenes.” I wonder if the implied perfection of those we “like” or “follow” does not cause us to become even more insecure. We compare ourselves and are found lacking. How sad.

To be real means showing the failures as well as the successes. It means sharing the story of the client who didn’t like your work. It means posting a picture of what your office really looks like. It means being honest when you are feeling overwhelmed. Admitting that you completely forgot the container for your container gardening presentation (true story, actually happened to me).

If we are real we may find that others will join us. And rather than a competition for who can be the most perfect we can encourage each other in our imperfections.