Don't Judge Your Value By Facebook

I help facilitate a Facebook page for a group of entrepreneurs. The page is for day-to-day support. Everyone is encouraged to use the page as a place to ask questions, share celebrations and challenges.

I was monitoring the page one day and I saw a post by someone who “admitted” she had been hiding. She shared that things had been hard. She hadn’t been following through on commitments. She said that she had been hiding because it was obvious from all the other posts that everyone else was doing great.

Stop judging yourself by what you see on Facebook.

Facebook is a world of extremes.

There are some people who seem to spend every moment in absolute bliss. They get everything they want. Everything is easy. They accomplish every single thing they set out to do. Business is great and they are inundated with new clients. If they encounter an obstacle they overcome it effortlessly.

Then there are those for whom nothing goes right. People and pets are always sick or dying. Business is awful and they can’t seem to get a decent client. None of the things they set out to do happen. They are angry and frustrated with their lot in life.

Newsflash: What you see on Facebook is a very small part of the story.

I speak with a lot of the entrepreneurs on the Facebook group I mentioned and I know for a fact that most of them, whether they post their amazing life or their miserable one, are just showing up to their life every day.

They get up in the morning. They encounter obstacles. They work to overcome them, sometimes they are successful and sometimes not. Sometimes someone is sick, other times everyone is healthy. Sometimes things are going well in their business, other times it seems like everything is coming apart at the seams. Most days are simply just days and that is okay.

I’m not going to tell you what to post, that is truly up to you.

What I am going to suggest is that stop judging yourself by the half-truths and the partial stories that you see on Facebook.

Instead, take an honest look at what’s going on in your life. Celebrate the good (there are some) and acknowledge the challenges (I know there are challenges too). And then all that’s left for you to do is show up and do your best.

Facebook has given us the ability to peer into the private thoughts of others. Those thoughts are selective; you are not seeing it all. Where have you allowed what you are seeing to cloud your judgment of yourself?