Is Social Media Harmful?

Besides being a giant time-suck, the worst part of social media is seeing curated and edited “perfect” versions of other people’s lives.

It’s nearly impossible to avoid comparison, which leads us to wonder why we’re struggling to get our own crap together.

Even though, deep down, we know social media isn’t real and no one’s life is perfect, we still set perfection as our standard—especially with food and exercise.

We think about what we want to accomplish, set out with good intentions, and then crush ourselves with judgment, guilt, and shame when we take one wrong step along the way.

We think, “I screwed it all up. What’s the point?”

We look around at others and lie to ourselves, believing that everyone besides us is crushing it with a perfect score.

But remember, we already established that no one is perfect.

We use this perfectionist expectation as an excuse to avoid pushing ourselves to do hard things.

We say: “I’m just going to fail again anyway, so why bother?”

Have either of these happened to you?

1 - You’re on a roll with your workouts.

Two weeks in a row without missing. Then, an unexpected trip comes up, and you miss three workouts in a row.

The streak is broken. It’s no longer perfect. It’s ruined. There’s no point, no hope.

You stop working out altogether and don’t get back to it for over six months—if ever.

You’ve failed.

2 - You’ve done diets in the past and gotten pretty quick results in the first month.

Life throws you a curveball or twenty, and you slip up.

Your progress grinds to a halt.

Your motivation to “do all the things” fades quickly, and you regain the weight faster than you lost it.

You’ve failed again.

But what if you went into things with a new definition of “failure” this time?

What if you expected to be imperfect like the rest of us?

What if messing up is built into the plan?

What if you balanced giving yourself grace with calling yourself out on your excuses, instead of thinking it has to be perfection or nothing?

What if the only way you could fail was if you quit?

You see, I believe God made us to be imperfect on purpose. Even if you don’t believe in God, it’s a fact that our brains are made to improve.

You might start out terrible, but you get better at what you keep doing.

Your brain makes adaptations to your central nervous system that help you get better at squatting with practice.

Your brain cements patterns in neural pathways as you repeat healthy habits, making them easier to choose over time.

YOU GET BETTER.

But not if you stop at the first “screw-up.”

Not if you don’t break the cycle of quitting when you’re not perfect.

This time, go into it knowing you’re going to stink.

Don’t set perfection as the standard you’ll be measured against.

And then, don’t quit.

CONSISTENCY beats PERFECTION every time, friend.

Hope this helps.

Lift heavy, and be nice.

Jonathan