I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The behavior of some people is really beyond my comprehension.
Petty, catty, sniveling little busy-bodies ... and yet there is a lesson to be learned.
I got my hackles up about Gabby Douglas, the incredible Team USA gymnast who brought home the gold in women’s gymnastics at the 2012 Olympics in London.
She is 16, has dedicated pretty much her entire life to gymnastics, and rose to become the top female gymnast IN THE WORLD.
The entire country is so proud of her that we are busting our buttons. I know I certainly am!
In spite of all of her amazing world-class talent and achievement on the world stage, the Twitterverse is buzzing about, here it comes ... her hair.
Her hair??
Yes, her hair. Some people have decided that in spite of all she has done, the most important, relevant comments that they can make are about her hair.
“It’s not kept,” “She should have spent as much time on her hair as she did on her makeup,” and so on.
Really? How can anyone overlook all of her achievements to find fault with her hair?
It’s hard to comprehend, isn’t it?
Here is the lesson: You can never please everyone. It doesn’t matter what you do, how hard you try or how long you try it, it simply cannot be done.
If Gabby Douglas can do as much as she did and STILL not please everyone, how can any of us?
We can’t, and here’s my point: Stop trying to.
Why is this important? Because we add incredible amounts of stress to our daily lives by trying to be perfect and/or trying to please everyone. None of us can or ever will.
I remember when I first started speaking professionally. I would pore over the evaluation sheets after a program and was always disappointed when someone didn’t think it was a great presentation.
Ninety-eight percent of the audience would love it and 2 percent had something negative to say. I chose to focus on that 2 percent.
As soon as I realized that I could never get 100 percent rave reviews, I felt like a boulder had been lifted off of my shoulders. A lot of angst and stress just disappeared.
There is no shame in not being perfect. Anyone who says they are perfect is either lying, delusional, or simply mistaken.
Minimize your stress by making sure that you aspire to reasonable goals.
Do you think that Gabby would have been as successful a gymnast if she had wanted her hair to be as perfect as her gymnastics?
Even if it was, someone would Tweet that they didn’t like her uniform, or her teeth, or a blemish on her skin, or SOMEthing.
Do the best you can, and don’t sweat the small stuff, even if someone else does. Frankly, I feel sorry for those who can only find fault or who choose to only find fault.
What a sad, unhappy life they must lead.
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Edited by Jody Smith