“You Are Enough” - But What Is "Enough" For You?
“You are enough.”
It’s one of the most powerful affirmations we have. One I carry close to my heart. And one I know is true - yet still have to remind myself nearly every single day.
Everybody knows this one - and everybody struggles with this.
The overachievers. The perfectionists. The people-pleaser. Even the narcissists.
Why is it so hard to give ourselves this grace?
We always push ourselves to the limits, until we can’t move anymore, breathe anymore - and eventually, when we’ve learned to accept the limit, we will remind ourselves that “we are enough.” But why do we wait until the brink of burnout to acknowledge our enoughness?
To break that cycle - to truly embody this, to live this without needing a constant reminder when we push the limits - we first and foremost have to define: what is “enough” for us?
Did you ever take that pause and ask yourself this? I for sure didn’t for a very long time.
What’s enough for you in others? How do you set the bar for yourself?
Is it enough for you to give your best? To try? To just be? Is it enough to have a kind heart? To be honest? To be authentic?
It is truly difficult to define it, isn’t it? If you take the time to ask yourself this question, you’ll realize how incredibly high you set the bar for yourself. Every. Day. How high you keep your ambitions.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with ambitions - not at all. I truly believe in setting high goals. That with setting high goals you will aim further, and get further. But it’s becoming problematic when this becomes the sole standard. That your sense of enoughness is only defined by achieving these ambitions. Because then, it will literally never be enough.
You will always find new ambitions. That’s how it works: you set goals, you reach them, and along the way you already set the target further. This is how progress works.
But if you tie this to “being enough,” well, you will never be enough.
And acknowledging being enough is truly the centerstone of deep self-love. Self-acceptance. Self-protection. This is the central piece to learn how to set healthy boundaries. To say no to the wrong things, and say yes to the expanding opportunities. To be proud of yourself just for trying, not for achieving.
This is how you become your best friend, your partner in crime. Because this is the essence of such a relationship. And you have the longest, deepest relationship - with yourself.
The refusal to be enough leads to a constant, exhausting internal war - with yourself, with others, and eventually, with your place in humanity.
Allow yourself to “be enough.” Say it to yourself every morning. And every time you feel the pressure on your chest. The resistance in breathing. The weight on your shoulder.
Because you are.
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