I know what you’re thinking every time you press publish on your latest blog post, share the last photo you took or upload your latest design… please someone like it, please someone favourite that tweet, please won’t someone share the post or say I did a good job… please someone care.  You want to be popular. You hate that word and the fact that it matters, but for some reason you still really crave it.

I know you do it because I do too. Every single time. We are desperate for validation, even if we don’t want to admit it. It’s why we share things online after all. We want someone else to say we did a good job or that we have a talent because inside we’re all deeply insecure.  We’re worried that some day soon people will find out the truth. That we’re really just winging it, that we actually don’t really know what we’re doing and that we’re making it all up as we go along.

Let me tell you something, you are good enough. Not because someone else tells you so, but because you try. You are good at what you do because you put all your effort in and you’re brave enough to share it with the world. You don’t need someone else to tell you that you did a good – or bad – job. You are enough.

But still you look at other people and ask yourself “How can I compete when there are so many other crazy talented people doing what I want to do?… They’re so much better than I could ever be… I’ll never be as good as them… I can never match up” and in some ways you’re absolutely right – you can never be them, but similarly they can never be you.

You are a true original. You can not be copied, replicated or imitated. So stop comparing yourself and stop wondering what everyone else will think. Stop looking for that external validation. Trust your gut, follow your instinct. Go and do you.

You have something different, special, authentic and honest to offer the world because no-one else has lived your life. You are good at what you do. You are good enough.