The Process of Self-Acceptance: Flaws and Strengths
There are so many things that I’m learning to accept about myself. I went so long ignoring my authenticity because it didn’t quite fit the vision I saw in others. For most of my life, I wasn’t in tune with the person I saw in the mirror. I often didn’t recognize her or understand who she was. I saw her as a small, rather meek person who didn’t quite measure up.
I grew up feeling different from everyone around me. Deep down, I knew something was off balance with me, but I couldn’t put a name to it or explain it at all. I actually felt like an old soul trapped in a young person’s body, constantly observing, wondering why kids my age said or did the things they did. I would observe how others talked, moved, and connected. Instead of seeing my curiosity as a strength, I compared myself to everyone and felt like I was always at least one step behind. Like no matter how hard I tried, I never caught up to what people called a “normal” life.
Even now, I’m still learning to like myself. Some days it’s easier to name the flaws than the strengths. I can list off my impatience, my lack of confidence, my indecisiveness, my irritability, my shyness, and my awkwardness. The list feels endless.
But honestly, I’m really ready to accept those flaws and quirks and just embrace them as a part of what makes me, me. I’m working on areas of my life that I feel like I neglected for years, and it feels like I’m in the rebuilding process and have only just started construction. The first step is acknowledging that I don’t need to change just to fit into someone else’s mold of what’s “normal” or “good enough.”
Because I do have strengths, and I see them with more clarity now. I’m smart. I’m resilient. I’m compassionate and deeply caring. I thrive when others around me are happy—that’s just my nature. I’m beginning to realize that acceptance doesn’t mean that I stop growing. It means that I’m allow myself to be a work in progress. It means that I can hold space for parts of me that I want to improve and the parts of me that already shine.
What’s one part of yourself—whether a strength or a flaw—that you’re learning to embrace instead of change?
“You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress at the same time.”
Sophia Bush
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One Comment
I never said I was funny.
This is beautiful. I’m 52 and just embracing many of my qualities because I started looking really deep inward why I always had to pretend I was happy. Now, I have people that I’ve hand picked to surround my everyday life. My husband, my daughters, my son in law, my parents, and a handful of friends. Not my sisters sadly, that was a really hard lesson that I am still grieving but I keep my head held high and my Faith in Christ. Keep up the good work.