Rest assured

A couple of weeks ago, I shared something I was proud of and it didn't do as well as I thought it would on social media. I got the chills even starting this blog post, because I hate to admit that I ever like validation. I'm a fairly confident person, and I know how to be proud of my hard work, but it's just so nice to receive validation from others -- whether it's superficial or substantial.

I have a tricky relationship with the concept of validation. It's important to feel validated and to validate others. It shows our loved ones that we support them just as we want to feel supported. But support doesn't totally line up with validation. We can be our friend's biggest fan and still not publicly hype them up on everything they do. There are other ways to show support. Reliance on social media for validation will take all the joy out of the doing of the thing in the first place.

Theodore Roosevelt said "comparison is the thief of joy." When I rely too much on social media for validation, I find myself comparing the quality of my work or myself with how one post compared to the next. That's obviously not the measure of my worth. Similarly, it's easy to fall down a rabbit hole of comparing yourself to others based on how much public validation others get.

That's not to say it's not nice to get that validation. Every time someone leaves a nice comment on a picture I post, a blog I wrote or something I created, it obviously makes me feel great. It's nice to see that others also love (or even like) the thing that I do. But I'm working on seeking validation primarily from myself -- finding joy in the things I create because I'm proud of them. Then, if I end up getting that extra validation, we'll that's just the cherry on top.