You do you

The older I get, the more it rings true

A common phrase to encourage people to live their lives how they please. And as they (and we all!) should. It’s a phrase I’ve often used myself and have always liked — and it resonates even more as I get older.

In a world rife with societal pressures and expectations, it’s sometimes hard to remember to live for yourself and do what works for you. There’s so much chatter and (mis)information out there, telling you to do this and that that it’s easy to get swept up in it. Of course, as long as you’re not hurting others in the process, it’s your life to live how you wish. You do you.

However, of course, it’s not always as simple as that. As a child or teenager, I used this phrase for different — and often more trivial — situations. Whereas now, as an adult, it rings true in all walks of life, and particularly for the more significant life choices. In daily life, there’s such a pressure to be or to do a certain way that it’s so easy to succumb to this.

Instead, it’s important to check in with ourselves regularly and ask ourselves: “What do I want right now?”; “Does this align with my principles and passions?”; “Is this right for me?” This allows us to bring ourselves back into the picture — and crucially, to the centre of the picture. This is important as it reminds us that we matter and to assert boundaries and look after ourselves. Consequently, the more we start to ‘do us’, the happier we become.

As someone who has spent most of their life comparing myself to others, and beating myself up about whether I was doing things right or well enough, I’ve definitely felt so much happier ‘doing me’. It’s gifting yourself a refreshing sense of freedom to do as you wish when you wish. It rewrites the (made-up) rules you were told growing up, whether by loved ones, school, or society. It frees you from the the chains of these societal pressures and expectations and lets you fly freely — exactly as you are.

When you truly accept the notion of ‘you do you’, you learn to accept yourself and the way you show up in this weird and wonderful world. And that grants you the peace you need and deserve. I’ve definitely still got a long way to go, but even simply being able to do what I want to do when I want to do it is a huuuge step for me. So I’m going to ‘do me’ and celebrate that.

You do you.