To be human is to feel insecure about things, it doesn’t matter who you are, you feel it at some point. But as J. A. Konrath said “One of the greatest journeys in life is overcoming insecurity and learning to truly not give a shit.”
I, for one, am feeling extremely insecure now about writing this, since, firstly this is my first piece of publishing of any sort, and I am feeling insecure about being judged for producing a terrible piece of work, and feeling like this wouldn’t be enough.
The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.
― Robert Hughes
To be human is to feel insecure about things, it doesn’t matter who you are, you feel it at some point. I, for one, am feeling extremely insecure now about writing this, since, firstly this is my first piece of publishing of any sort, and I am feeling insecure about being judged for producing a terrible piece of work, and feeling like this wouldn’t be enough.
Social Media and Insecurities
In this world of interconnected-ness, for good or for worse, we can hear the voices of people which we could never have heard until now. Almost the entirety of the major internet we (or at least I) interact with daily, which is mostly social media, is full of fake or twisted reality trying to make others feel like their life is actually good. Yeah, but you know this as well, you know that Tony from next block doesn’t actually own a super-car that he posted, but it doesn’t help much in reducing your insecurity about job or money, does it?
The feeling of insecurity isn’t always a form of jealousy, it’s this tingling painful sensation in your gut that tells you, that there is some shit for you to worry about, and not in a way that makes you feel like you could that. It could be because your cousin just got into MIT, or that you couldn’t throw a hoop, or that your girlfriend is talking to someone with better abs than you. The worst part is, sometimes your insecurities are false or meaningless or you could have grown out of them as well, but you won’t realize. This reminds me of the rope used to tie the elephant, the lore is, that the elephant will be tied to a rope which it could not escape when it was very young, so it never tries to escape even after fully growing up thinking of many times it tried to but failed to do so, thereby never reaching its full capacity One more main cause of insecurity is comparison, as Theodore Roosevelt rightfully said “Comparison is the thief of joy.”, this could be because of parents comparing you to others, or you do it yourself. And the sad part is, most of the comparison metrics don’t actually mean anything, like the number of followers, marks in the SAT, or even amount in the bank, none of them matter if you are happy in your own skin.
So forget your insecurities, do whatever you want - go dance in the lift, no one’s watching you, wear that dress you always wanted to wear,write that article you always wanted to write, send that risky text. You only live once, there isn’t enough time to think about what others think, even if they are thinking about you in the first place.
Why should you listen to me anyway?
You don’t have to, heck I even suggest not to take me seriously, because I am neither a psychologist nor a philosopher or a scientist, I am just a meaningless speck of dust finding or at least trying to find out stuff about life.
