Why We Should Embrace Our Irrelevance

Writer’s block.

It happens to all of us, whether you need to send a late night text to a crush or finish a dissertation. But I think we can even have writer’s block off of the paper.  My family, for example, has the most severe case of “writer’s block” whenever dinner time rolls around. None of us know what we want to eat. Ever. And no one wants to make a decision for fear that the rest of the family will disapprove. We sit around for ages tapping fingers, typing in search engines, and sighing in disbelief that it’s been 20 minutes and we still don’t have a plan. It all becomes very angsty after a while, as you might imagine. See, the feeling of not knowing what to do, where to go, or why you’ve even started is a pretty common experience. Maybe it is time we talk a little more openly about it.

I read an article on Psychology Today earlier this morning. The author pleas that when we experience a lapse of creativity, we might just be setting our expectations too high. I have to admit, I often have this insecurity.

My fatal flaw.

I fear insignificance like the plague, and the current dominance of social media makes it impossible to feel as though anything I do is original. As a content creator and consumer, I easily see images on Instagram and fall prey to feelings of irrelevance. In my mind, nothing I post will ever skim the surface of revolutionary, so why am I posting at all? Our friends over at Psychology Today would suggest this thought why I never seem to post consistently online.

It goes beyond just posting online though. I fear an insignificant career, an insignificant love. . .an insignificant voice. I could keep going on and on down the list, but that’ll only serve to make me anxious and you bored. So I will skip to the point. Maybe it is true that we lock up when we fear we will fall short of our expectations, but I think there is more to our unwritten stories than that.

Embracing irrelevance.

Somewhat saddening yet remarkably true, we are a self-centered species. Maybe not in a “me-me-me” sort of way, but most of us have been brainwashed into believing that the entire world cares about what we do every minute of every day. We live our lives pursuing unreasonable expectations that no one outside of ourselves actually even holds.

For the past two weeks, I have been really hard on myself about posting a picture every day on Instagram. If you run an online business, you’ll know that consistent posting is the only way to beat the algorithm which hides our posts from followers. Maybe if I lived some fabulous city life, I could find a reason to pop a picture online every single day, but I am a college kid on summer break. 80% of my time is spent cuddling my dogs and re-watching Sex and the City. That’s my life, but I post pictures like the ones you see in this post because I am fighting to keep up with my ever-advancing content expectations. I want to create visually captivating stories, so when that’s not the case, I lose all motivation.

I mean, honestly, if I look at my numbers, no one cares what or when I post. Except for me and sometimes my mom. Dwelling on the insignificance of those numbers makes me forget why I started blogging in the first place. Sure, I’m a girl with a camera and a love for pretty clothes and pretty places. But I am so much more than that. You are so much more than that.

I urge you (and me), stop creating expectations that don’t exist. Write, live, and love freely. The ability to embrace your irrelevance is perhaps the most significant, the most empowering thing you will ever do.