I am lucky enough to be in an environment where I am surrounded by bright-minded, high-achieving people that are doing incredible work every day, and they are nothing short of inspiring. Safe to say - I am the dumbest person in the room. On one hand, I get to learn from them every day, driving myself to get better. On the other, comparison inevitably arises within myself, and it has been slowly getting onto me recently: will I ever be good enough?

There is always a looming pressure within me to work hard to prove myself to people; to prove that I belong in the room; to prove that I am equally capable of brilliance. I always tell myself: if I ever slack off, I will fall behind, and I will be vacated from the room of smarts.

Truthfully, no matter how hard I work, it will never feel enough. In the same vein that validations numb my insecurity and my wounds, working numbs the fear (which stems from my insecurity.) Neither makes the source of the problems go away. The answer to this is obvious: one should work not out of insecurity, but for the love of the game; for self-improvement; for themselves and themselves only.

The problem now lies within addressing insecurities and wounds within each of us. For many, including myself, this is a life-long journey of self discovery: processing past events, learning from failures, powering through traumas, and sitting with discomforts. Regardless of what one does, always remember: symptom relieves are never the solution.