Don’t try to be perfect, be you

Today, more than ever, the average teenager is striving for the best. Many teenagers are faced with pressure to be perfect from their parents, coaches, teachers, friends and the most alarming of all, the teen themselves are tearing at each mistake, trying to perfect every last detail. Ask any adult, and they will clearly admit that their teen years weren’t exactly beds of roses. The teen years can be turbulent ones, full of self-doubt and angst at the outside world and worst of all the pressure to be perfect. As a young adult, what you need to understand is that it’s normal for things not always go your way. Nobody’s perfect, stop obsessing about what’s wrong with yourself because when you do, you will loose focus and you won’t give anyone else a chance to notice all the great things about you. You also need to bear in mind that almost everyone fails at some point. Life is stressful enough without you trying to beat yourself up because you failed a test. We weren’t all programmed with the ability to be perfect 100 percent of the time. Go ahead. Fail. Just do it. Fall flat on your face! If you want, cry. Let it all out. But whatever you do, don’t forget to get back up on your feet at sometime. And when you do, wipe all the mud and tears off your face and remember that you are that much stronger than before and that we all have to taste dirt at some point. Tell yourself, it happened because it was meant to happen. Don’t regret it, learn from it. I know it’s hard to feel good when things don’t work out the way you want them to. But remember, failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success. When you give yourself enough time to prepare for that big date, study for that test, write that paper, etc, and you will find that things tend to get much better and simpler. There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. Just keep in mind that only those who dare to fail greatly will achieve greatly, so don’t look at yourself as a failure just because you failed once or twice. Do not let anybody tell you that you’re not good enough; a successful person is one who can build a strong foundation with the bricks that others threw at him. So don’t let people tell you what life is going to be like in the future for you, you can only decide that. It’s whatever you want to do. Don’t follow others dreams, follow yours. martin.bishop18@yahoo.com