Admire Someone Else's Beauty Without Questioning Your Own

We've seen the quote time and time again, popping up in our social feeds, "Admire someone else's beauty without questioning your own.", accompanied by an image of a flamingo and a peacock checkin' each other out.

Two equally beautiful, but different looking birds, coexisting without wondering if they are as attractive as the other. These two birds represent what we often have trouble doing as humans: coexisting without questioning our own value, based on comparing ourselves to others.

But what does it really mean and how can we implement these wise words?

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The key to admiring others beauty, work, success etc is simply self confidence. The ability to appreciate your own positive attributes and accept the not so good stuff along with it; while recognizing that others have both good and bad too. We all fit as a unique piece in a much bigger puzzle, each piece equal in size, but with different edges and curves, fitting perfectly where we need to be. 

There is a freedom in being able to appreciate others beauty.  It's much easier and joyous to celebrate others attributes rather than wonder, "Am I pretty like her?".  The answer will always be "No.", because you are are not pretty like her, you are pretty like YOU!

"Comparison is the thief of joy." - Theodore Roosevelt

I often have a hard time finding the words to convey the message I'm trying to send, so I will leave it to someone who said it better than I could: "This quotation, from Theodore Roosevelt, argues that comparing your work, your life, or whatever else will only serve to make you unhappy. Why? Because when you compare yourself to others, you know all the dirty details of your situation or the problems with what you've created but only the seemingly positive surface information about them or their work." 

This translates equally to the topic of beauty, specifically in the social media focused world we live in.  It's easy to scroll through and see others perfectly curated highlighted reel, but behind the filters and perfect poses are real people with real lives and real issues, just like you.  

It's also important to note, that we are often far too hard on ourselves: we see what we consider our flaws all day everyday and kinda get sick of lookin' at em! But others often find our "ugly bits" to be endearing.  The not so perfect stuff is the same stuff that makes us human and the stuff that makes us human is the stuff that helps us connect with one another.