Am I good enough?

I had a friend share with me recently that he was doing an important presentation at work and stumbled on the opening line. He was devastated. I can’t remember his exact words but the sentiment was that because of it he would “never work in this town again”. My heart broke for him - whether it would have that dramatic an effect on his career was true or not, it’s awful that he felt that way. What kind of impossible level of perfection are we holding ourselves to that there is zero room for error?

It made me start reflecting on “enoughness”. So many of us have a voice in our heads telling us that we’re not enough - not smart enough, not funny enough, not pretty enough, not thin enough, not successful enough, not rich enough, not young enough, not creative enough, not cool enough, not strong enough, not vulnerable enough, not happy enough...not good enough.

We could probably have a healthy debate about how those thoughts get formed and set on repeat. Is it societal pressures and fashion magazines? Does it come from our family? From bullies in school? From rejection? I don’t know exactly but I’m more concerned with recognizing it, being aware that they’re just thoughts and then changing the narrative. 

We often seek external validation for our level of goodness - grades in school, performance feedback at work, likes on social media, how full our social calendar is. But none of this really matters. Our goodness comes from within and it’s there and valid and real, regardless of whether or not others recognize it.

The reason this has become so important to me is because of my children. I look at my son and my daughter and see how they are perfect. And that doesn’t mean perfect behaviour or perfect grades - rather, they are unique beautiful human beings. And they don’t yet have that narrative running through their heads. At 6 and 4, they intrinsically know that they are good enough - and they’re absolutely right.

I hope you take a moment today to reflect on how we are good enough just the way you are - you don’t need any fixing. You don’t need any improvement. You are showing up on this Earth exactly as you should be and it’s beautiful. 

Let’s all remember being 6 and 4 and being good enough before the world told us otherwise. Because you are good enough. You are good enough, even when you stumble on the first line of your presentation.