The Danger of Living Heavily Edited Lives

It took me only a moment to take this photo of street performers from Head Over Heals Acrobatics the other week. But what it doesn’t show is the hours and hours of practise it takes to perform a stunt like this, let alone all the bruises from the many failed attempts!

But anything worthwhile takes time, effort, practise, and risk.

However, when we’re saturated in Instagram Reels, TikToks and talent shows where people turn up already fully formed and supposedly talented, we get a skewed view on reality.

That’s what our kids are mostly seeing these days – heavily edited lives.

The edited life misses out on what makes it all worthwhile.

The journey, the doing, the being, the discovering.

It maybe a cliché, but the art of getting our hands dirty in the process of making something, learning something, evolving into something – fills us up on the inside. The journey is all about intrinsic motivation. When you can step back and say, ‘Yeah baby, – I did that!’.

It’s then that the adulation, pats on the back and the likes and shares can be enjoyed – even though they won’t last long. People are quick to move on to the next thing, to keep scrolling or swiping.

I’m no exception. If a post doesn’t get lots of likes, I tend to drape myself over furniture and look pathetic. But I soon remember that I had the opportunity to write something and share my thoughts with likeminded people and that gets me back on track.

So enjoy the journey, my friends… it’s not a long one, so make the most of it. And tell your kids that too. Practise makes progress.