The Pedestal of Perfection

When you picture the perfect woman what do you see? Is it someone with a successful career, an enviable size 8 figure and a beautiful pristine house?  Is she happily married with 2 or more beautiful children who are always perfectly behaved? Is she a domestic goddess and a social butterfly? 

Whilst I’m sure that these women exist somewhere on this planet, it must be pretty exhausting juggling all of those perfectly formed balls at the same time.  The problem is whilst many of us aspire to be all of these things, in reality very few of us will actually manage to attain them, and certainly not all at the same time.

This means that for the majority of women, we are left staring at the pedestal of perfection destined to fail. So why do we constantly place ourselves under this suffocating blanket of pressure? Pressure to be the perfect mother, the perfect wife, to have the perfect job and the perfect home.  The list is endless and is exhausting to think about let alone trying to achieve. 

Tune into any social media networking site and is it any wonder that this enormous amount of pressure exists in society today? Perfectly presented images of perfect lifestyles, homes, travels, meals and perfect bodies, including perfectly applied makeup and peachy behinds!

Remove the filtered lens and what is behind the perfectly poised and flawless photos? They say that a picture paints a thousand words, but do these words speak the truth, or are they merely what we want others to believe? We are misguided by the perfect feed, which distracts from real life. 

I am guilty of living this life, I mean why bother showing your real self when you can present a better, more filtered one.  Social media allows us to carefully curate what we expose, so why not expose the best bits, even if it’s not reality. The trouble is, this is a dangerous slippery slope, because we lose our true self, constantly striving to portray the perfect one.  

In truth, life isn’t perfect, its hectic; the majority of us work hard, be that at work, raising a family or just trying to survive in this so called world of madness. Sure, some of us do jet-set around the world and lead lavish lifestyles, but for most of us life just isn’t that exciting all the time. The trouble is social media allows us to live through other people’s lives and before you know it you’re consumed with jealousy and anxiety, constantly comparing your life to the ones that are perfectly portrayed. Suddenly, we become obsessed with craving validation, we seek perfection and we become exhausted trying to maintain it.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I have burnt myself out trying to reach that pedestal of perfection. I’ve tried to be a perfect woman with all of those perfect attributes, but in trying to do so I lost who I was and it affected my health and happiness. I am sure we all like to see ourselves as successful, but sadly, we are too consumed with seeking the approval of others, that we lose sight of what is really important.  My life isn’t perfect, but it’s my life; I am forever grateful that I’m still living it and for who I share it with. This is far more important than hiding behind the online avatar that sadly so many of us chose to show the world. 

My world isn’t the shiny and polished hallway but rather an abandoned surface of peeling wallpaper that will no doubt be finished sometime soon. But that’s OK, that’s life and it’s real life.