Around one am last night…eh… this morning, I woke up to tend to our five month old. At some point during the feeding and soothing process, I stumbled down the social media rabbit hole. I read some fantastic blog posts, explored some new tools, learned who was leading training sessions where or keynoting what event, who had made beautiful loaves of freshly baked bread, who had hand-drawn wedding cards, and even how many new followers or unfollowers people had. As the light dimmed on my device and I put the little one back in his crib, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things I suddenly felt I needed to do.

Why haven’t you:

• written that post
  • or that one
  • or that one….
• curated those resources
• created that graphic
• re-written that training to account for (insert new fad)
• mastered HMTL, CSS, & JavaScript
• followed up on that idea
  • see someone else already did it… and it was awesome!
• planned that event
• sent that newsletter
• written that ebook
• ugg expense reports
• followed up with that friend
• created sensory activities for the baby
• printed baby pictures
• purchased and wrapped the Christmas presents
• finished that painting
• read that book
• made bread from scratch
• mastered digital sketchnoting
• just done more!

Wow…no wonder I couldn’t go back to sleep for a bit.

A friend of a friend has this as his Instagram profile description:

“This is an attempt to create a beautiful facade to my imperfect and sometimes ugly life. Enjoy at your discretion.”

I think we all need a reality check. Or at least I do.

We compare our 24 hours worth of accomplishments with a steady stream of 24 to the 99bigydigibillionth power of the work of others. This thought helped me put things in perspective. Those hand-drawn wedding cards, yes they are beautiful, but that doesn’t mean my Hallmark one won’t be appreciated. The incredible genius of my friend, Michelle Cordy, can be respected, used for my learning and growth, but I won’t let it become a measuring stick of the minds (which is probably for the best because I know I’ll never out wit her). There will always be a new resource I haven’t played with. Especially with friends like Jon Samuelson, Jake Duncan, and Greg Garner around.

So, let’s use the power of democratized information and sharing for good. Let it build us up, not tear us down. Let it teach us and push us to grow, but let’s also give ourselves a little grace, remember everyone has a behind the scenes, and focus on doing work that matters.

And if you need a reminder that the Pinterest life isn’t reality check this out…