When you learn to accept your flaws, you learn how to be content with who you are now until you reach your goals. You don’t feel insecure about yourself or your accomplishments because you compare yourself to those who have come before you.
Accepting your flaws isn’t seen as complacency or a lack of ambition; it’s seen as compassion and self-love; knowing you’ll never be perfect, look a certain way, or love everything about yourself completely, but that won’t stop you from embracing your flaws. Accepting what you can’t change. Instead of viewing yourself through the eyes of others, try feeling good enough and knowing your worth.
“The beauty of learning to accept your flaws is that it takes away the pressure to impress people or always trying to measure up to someone”
When you learn to accept your flaws, you become less vulnerable to other people’s judgments, words, or opinions about you. No one can humiliate you or use them against you. You accept that you are human, that you are learning, and that you still have a long way to go.
Is Owning Your Flaws Hard?
When you read that quote, it appears to come from someone who is trying too hard. That doesn’t diminish his brilliance or success. Without a doubt, man’s intellect ranks among the greatest minds in history. But he always seemed awkward in social situations. He was trying too hard, and it came across as forced. But now that he’s come out and accepted himself, respect him 100 times more. What we have learned from Elon Musk isn’t the obvious stuff that people talk about, like “billionaire habits.”
It’s fascinating that Elon Musk took longer to publicly embrace himself than to launch a rocket to the moon. For years, he built world-changing businesses, but he rarely spoke about himself. Isn’t that amazing?
Internal Conflict is Pointless
Most of us believe that we must conceal our flaws from the rest of the world. We believe we must project confidence. We believe that to be accepted, we must act in a certain way.
- “If you want to be a salesperson, you have to enjoy chasing money and new business.”
- “As an entrepreneur, you must be willing to take risks.”
- “If you want to be an artist, you have to do drugs.”
- “If you want to be a writer, you have to drink whisky.”
- “You have to sleep in the office and work on weekends if you’re an investment banker.”
We’re constantly struggling with who we are internally and who we are externa as a result of all these false beliefs about how one should behave. When we hide certain aspects of ourselves, we become frustrated because we feel confined. Furthermore, as long as we struggle internally, we will never reach our full potential.
Understanding our flaws leads to greatness.
What happens when we accept our flaws and weaknesses? When you accept who you are, you no longer waste time trying to fit in or impress others. You can devote all of your energy to achieving your goals in life. Not everyone needs to be Elon Musk, who is changing the world. And I believe he’s just getting started. He can now inspire others on a personal level, rather than just in business, because he is no longer trying to hide his true self from the world. That is also true for the rest of us. Everyone understands that we will never be perfect. It’s a cliche that everyone believes. But what should we do? We overlook it and try to be perfect.
When you learn to accept your flaws, you attract others who do as well. You meet people who don’t make you feel like you have to change your personality. You meet people who appreciate the fact that you’re a little odd, a little eccentric, a little messy, a little bizarre, but they still love you. When you learn to accept your flaws rather than pick at and magnify them, you create a positive environment for yourself, you begin to nurture yourself in all the right ways, you become stronger, more resilient, and more confident, and you begin to understand that even with your flaws, you’re still beautiful and loved.
When you learn to accept your flaws, you learn how to fight and win your battles, and how to protect yourself from pointless wars. When you learn to accept your flaws, you’ll never have to wonder if you’re good enough for anyone as long as you’re good enough for yourself.
Don’t fall victim to “Compare and Despair.”
The issue isn’t that we’re flawed. The problem is that we believe other people aren’t we believe they live perfect (or nearly perfect) lives. It’s no surprise that we feel inadequate when we compare ourselves to others. We wonder, “What’s wrong with me?” Everyone else appears to have everything under control. I appear to be the only one who is having difficulty.
When we scroll through social media, other people’s lives appear to be picture-perfect. They have cute kids, expensive vacations, a large circle of friends, a great career, a kind/funny/ambitious spouse, designer clothes, and a perfect body. On the outside, it certainly appears to be in good condition! Even if all of these outward manifestations of a perfect life are true, they do not tell the entire story. They don’t tell you that behind that seemingly happy marriage is a controlling spouse, that behind that bikini body is an eating disorder, and that those adorable children still don’t sleep through the night. The in-laws who are involved are critical and demanding. And behind that big house is a woman who is embarrassed to have people over because her house is in such a state of disarray.
We all know that no one is perfect, but knowing that isn’t enough to make us give up our desire to be perfect. We either don’t notice that others are struggling, or we don’t hold them to the same impossible-to-meet standards. You may believe that it is acceptable for others to make mistakes, but it is not acceptable for you. You must be perfect.
Conclusion
That’s insane! Instead, let us make do with what we have and accept our flaws. That way, we can focus our efforts on being great at what we do or simply being great people. I appreciate that someone like Elon Musk is leading by example. It encouraged me to accept my flaws as well. And I hope it had the same effect on you.
