Have you ever heard a truer statement? Comparison breeds so much discouragement, discontentment, and disapproval. Born from a place of ingratitude, it reminds you all that you’re not and everything that you lack.

Do you ever feel like you're constantly striving? Do you ever feel like you are stretching yourself too thin, yearning to find balance between your life, relationships, and priorities? If you are, I'm pretty sure that you are a pretty busy woman.

If you would’ve told me a few years ago that I would basically have an aversion to social media today, I wouldn’t have believed you. I mean I’m the girl who was taking selfies before selfies were even a thing. I would take my purple Nikon point and shoot camera and go to town having daily selfie sessions.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really planned for setbacks. Well, let me not lie. I am very Type A, so I always have a plan for a plan, but for the most part, I never actually planned on using those backup plans.

Have you ever found yourself exhausted, lonely, and burnout from busyness, striving, and proving but longing for peace and connection? This is exactly how I felt when I picked up Present Over Perfect.

Overweight. Insecure. Low-self esteem. These words describe how I viewed myself during my high school days. Never pretty enough, never popular enough, and of course I wasn’t skinny enough.

Friendships have never been my strong suit. For the most part they have ebbed and flowed with the different seasons of my life. I guess you can say that most of my friendships have always been a convenience -- they served me well for that particular season, but when that season was up, so was the friendship. 

Unbeknownst to me, striving has always been a huge part of my life;  It’s like a birthmark that I never knew I had, but has always been with me. Because of this embedded character trait, I was never satisfied with normal. 

For the most part, I would say that I’ve always been a genuinely positive person. When I was younger, my sisters said that if they wanted to, they could’ve thrown me down the stairs and I would’ve still came back to them singing and smiling.