First-Rated Version of Yourself

Hi everyone and thanks for tuning in again this week! Judy Garland once said, “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” My birthday was yesterday and as I reflected on the past 24 years of my life I thought about all the different versions of myself I had been as I morphed into the person I am today.

Now even though today is not the finished product as we are always evolving and growing as people emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

However, hopefully, today you feel you are the best version of yourself. The world around us these days can be extremely overwhelming as we are constantly surrounded by Instagram, Tik-Tok, Facebook, and so many other social media sites that make us analyze ourselves more than anyone ever should. I have touched base in the past about being social media addicted. We are good at putting a false image of reality into our minds which leads us to be unhappy with ourselves.

We can strive to be someone else all day long, but then you are missing out on being the special edition you were created to be for this world.

Personally, I can relate to trying to be someone else in the early years of my career as a model. Coming from a small town and not being surrounded by fashion, city life, or overly confident individuals in my life I had a really hard time trying to find myself in this business. The way I was raised was with the belief that everyone wants the best for you. As great as this sounds let me be real, this is not true!!

Moving to NYC after traveling overseas and just finishing high school was such an overload of information and here I was trying to fit into the fashion business. I was only 18 years old, my sense of style was miss me jeans and Sperry boat shoes, and I said sorry about 100 times a day.

Being in a business as competitive as the modeling world meant that different people that managed me throughout my career were constantly trying to create “who I was.”

Meanwhile, I did not even know who I was.

I would get into such an overthinking state of mind that I would think twice about how to start a conversation at work, if I was talking too much, what to talk about, what to wear, how to pose, you name it I overthought it. I changed my style from sporty, to cool girl, and best of yet to no bra allowed under my clothes. Meanwhile, I love pink and frills. I was so busy trying to be a bitchy cool girl that played with the psychology of the industry that I completely lost who I even was. In reality, I am very outgoing, I love to talk to people, smile a lot, and I am the furthest thing from a bitch I think unless I am a drunk. Then you better watch out. Haha jokes aside. It took me years, but now I can confidently say I know what I like to wear. I have a style, I know how to have a conversation, how to be confident, and how to be the best I can be at my job.

Back to the point of this topic, putting energy and time into wanting to be someone else is only taking away the precious time that you have of your life.

You were made and put on this earth to be able to experience your own life in its trajectory path.

The beautiful thing is that everyone has their own journey. Someone will meet their soul mate at 18 another one at 35. Someone will have their first kid at 16 while someone else will at the age of 40.

Life has no right or wrong’s to it of how it is to be lived.

You are here to make your own life, your own experiences, your own connections, and ultimately your own memories. So stop trying to be like everyone else! You are beautiful the way you are. If you were meant to be someone else, you wouldn’t be put here on this earth with your own identity.

So don’t allow the world to influence you.

Look in the mirror, see all that you were blessed with, and go make the most of this beautiful life that you were given!

As always, I believe in you!

XOXO

BB Jean