Opinion: It’s okay not to give into the pressure of feeling like you have to be distinguished on IWD

It's ok to not be ok.

International Women's Day, a day of celebrating the achievements of women, the lives of women and the successes we've seen. But more times than none, we're left feeling a little bit "meh" on this day, with a lot of us feeling as if we have to be super successful or made some great achievement to be a part of it. While International Women's Day is a way of focusing on these incredible things, the pressure to feel a certain way is tough and we end up comparing ourselves to others. In the era of social media, we do this on a daily basis, maybe we aren't even aware of how often we are doing it. On a day like this, however, we can often find ourselves not only comparing our bodies and lives to others, we start comparing our achievements and putting ourselves down if we aren't where we want to be. I'm not saying we shouldn't be celebrating this day or shouldn't praise women on everything we've achieved. All of these things are more than incredible, and we deserve to be recognised every day of the year for them, not just this day. What I am saying, however, is that there is pressure for women to be something, the idea that if we haven't made a name for ourselves, we're doing it wrong, we're failing. As we all know, this couldn't be further from the truth, but somewhere in our subconscious we still believe it. If you have your life together and gotten where you want to be, whether it's a job or your personal life, amazing, you are doing incredible things and you should be applauded. If you are still figuring things out, or aren't exactly where you thought you'd be by now, that's more than okay. You'll get there, and you're doing incredibly well. We're all taking life at our own pace, some are faster than others and some are taking it every step at a time, and you're not alone in that. The point of all this is, if you don't have it together or even feel like you don't have it together, who cares? You're doing you at your own pace and that's all anyone expects from you, you've got this.