Friendly reminder that “doing your best” does not mean pushing yourself to the limits of endurance, but only doing the best you can without hurting yourself.
Further, even friendlier reminder that it’s completely fine if that means you don’t do as much as someone else.
They’re not you, and your contribution is just as valid as theirs.
Oh wow. This is huge. I didn’t think of it like this. I’ve always seen “doing my best” as pushing myself past my limits and hurting myself to try and meet other people’s (and my own) expectations. But I never thought of it like this. I never considered my best meaning working as much as my body allows at that time. I should really just be taking 1-2 classes a semester but I feel like I’m not doing “my best” unless I’m taking 5. And I suffer physically and mentally because of it.
Additionally, your best can vary from day to day. Super important.
Basically, there’s no point to beating yourself up.
This is a post aimed at me and other people who constantly fall into guilt spirals over all the things they can’t do, and feel they should somehow magically be able to do anyway.
For me, and for the others, this is a gentle reminder:
– Posts asking for monetary donations are speaking to people who have money. Not your broke ass, still worrying how to buy food next month.
– Posts asking you to care about [extreme injustice of the day] are speaking to people who have energy to care. Not you, hanging onto your sanity by the fingernails.
And, most importantly: posts telling you that you are horrible/cheap/awful/rude/unworthy/unlikable if you don’t pay/reblog/signal boost/care? Those posts can fucking die in a fire.
TL;DR: Posts asking for shit you are not physically or mentally able to give?
note to self: just because someone did the thing you were thinking about doing, and did it way better than you could ever hope to do, doesn’t mean it would be stupid or pointless to go ahead and try to still do the thing anyway.
Also, when it comes to creative things? There really is no “better”.
Sure, someone might be more technically accomplished than you – you might not be able to colour as nicely or craft a sentence that rings as poetically – but art is only really secondarily about that. It’s firstmost about what you, uniquely, have to express, and how the precise way you express it might be what others need to relate to it – even if it’s less flashy, less “beautiful”, and gets fewer notes.
I promise you this: there are obscure fanfics with only a handful of notes that are the read-and-re-read favourites of someone too anxious to comment. There are drawings done by 14-year-olds in poorly-blended markers that are someone’s favourite because they spoke to something that nothing else did. There are covers of songs where your voice cracks and you cringe every time you hear it but someone thinks the way it cracked just at that moment added beauty to the song. There are angsty three-line poems you wrote at 4am that someone once called “pretentious emo trash” that are loved by someone else going through the same thing as you.
And I guarantee you, there is something unique about your art. Even if you’re “saying something someone else has said”. Even if you’re the thousandth person to take on the subject. Even if you feel like you’re not at all unique. You’re bound to express something, however subtle, that didn’t exist until then.
Art is about connection. And the more you create, the more chance you have of finding other people who experience the world the way you do.
“But the one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.“ via @neil-gaiman
The “two cakes” theory of content production.
It was only yesterday that I was lamenting thing I no longer felt allowed to do because someone had done similar.
I ought to read this post daily. Maybe twice daily.
It is okay to whine.
It is okay to acknowledge that your situation sucks and that it’s unfair.
It is okay to throw yourself a pity party.
It is okay to be pissed off about the things you go through.
You don’t have to grin and bear it.
You don’t have to suffer in silence.
You have a right to talk about your struggles and no one has a right to shame you for that.
Do what you need to do to get through the day/flare/episode/life.
Your pain is legitimate and you are under no obligation to hide it.
Just gonna reblog this out of gratitude because I actually did forget…
Fffffffff let me get right on that.
and then reblog for the next forgetful son of a bitch
I’m so great full for everyone that is reblogging this. I totally forgot to take mine
I think that there is some sort of unspoken fairy godparent thing where you see this, realize that you forgot your meds, and rebagel it because if you forgot someone else must have. And in our turn we all take care of each other, even if we don’t know it.
the whole “i used to be a teen who hated authority only to grow up to become the authority that hates teens” is a bad bad thing that practically every other generation has fallen into and we all need to make an extremely conscious effort not to repeat the fucking pattern
Studies have shown that the shift starts to happen around age 30. If you’re close to that, make a conscious effort to be open to and accepting of younger people. I’m 31 and paying close attention to how I react to young people and new trends and shit and trying to keep myself from developing those thought patterns.
I’m 27 and I look at the younger generation and I am filled with hope. I look at my 15 year old sister-in-law and marvel. She and her friends are so much more socially aware than anyone I knew at that age. They are trying to make a difference in the world. They fight for the marginalized and disadvantaged.
She texted me one day about how a kid in class was using r*t*d*d as an insult and she called him out in front of the entire class.
Another time, a boy was sexually harassing her and her friends. Another friend confronted the boy who swung first but lost the fight. He hasn’t bothered them since.
We regularly talk about rape culture, misogyny, feminism, intersectionality, and so much more.
The younger generation is so much better than we were at that age and that is wonderful. They are fighting against oppressive systems and cruelty. They are growing up in a time of hate and violence but still find the strength to push back and say no. The younger generation has so much potential to be so much more than we could ever be and I think that’s beautiful.
To my teenage followers, you are wonderful and powerful. You may be young, but you are mighty. Fight for what is right and what is true. Fight against the systems that harm so many of us. Fight for the downtrodden and oppressed. Use your power, your voice, your privileges, your abilities to be a force of change. I believe in you. I believe you will do great things.
There's a Mirror on the Wall 