Girl, Wash your face by Rachel Hollis

Lesson learnt by ya girl from Girl, Wash your face

The ethos of “Girl, wash your face” is that the lies we conceive and believe about ourselves, our capabilities and our limitations are the biggest obstacles in achieving our dreams. A few honest first-hand accounts were so honest and relatable that it made me want to share parallels from my life to empower others. Here are my key takeaways from Girl, Wash your face!

1. Reordering our priority list

A cool trick to find out if you have your priorities the right way is to ask yourself what is most important to you. I did try this exercise with a few women around me. Their priority lists contain their family, career, friends, social work in different orders. However, as Rachel suggested they were missing in their own priority lists. This is a serious cause for concern. Sisters, we should make sure that our health and happiness is at the top of our priority list. Only then can we get to engage in every other task in our bucket list.

This includes me too. I once had to prep for a History test on French Revolution at high school. At the time, I loved History and had an amazing teacher who shared stories and case studies that sparked interest. However, I had a cold at the time and didn’t get it checked, this then became a fever and I ended up taking the test with a temperature.

Lesson learnt : Your health is of prime importance in helping you achieve everything else

2. Why compare ourselves with our sisters

Women have this horrible habit of checking themselves against others.

> Am I doing too little for my household compared to my daughter’s classmate’s Mum?

>Why am I not baking gluten-free, dairy-free cookies for my son’s bake sale like his classmate’s Mom?

Life’s too short to keep comparing ourselves to others. As long as you, your family and friends are well and happy, you are doing well in life. Also guess what, your classmate’s Mom might be wondering how you manage to handle both parenting and your career effectively and why she is unable to.

I recently went on a Holiday to a nearby city. I was unaware that we were planning to visit a wedding, as we hadn’t RSVP’d on time. However, we decided to go at the last minute. I felt so uncomfortable entering the venue wearing a poorly draped shawl. I saw a girl wearing a perfectly draped shawl gazing at me. “ You look gorgeous, I wish I could drape my shawl like you.” I just said this to her and in five mins my shawl looked like a twin of hers.

Lesson Learnt : Don’t judge your sisters or yourselves for where you are at and never hold back on a compliment, it could just brighten up their day and potentially yours too!

3. My perception of me

Finally, the part where Rachel talks about how people’s perception of you sometimes becomes more important than your view of yourself or your happiness is amazingly accurate. The balancing act of meeting up with your friends and staying in touch with your family while handling your professional life and maintaining your health — all while hoping that your society likes you and accept your choices is a herculean feat.

I’ve been caught up in the web of “What will people think” so many times. This thought that your perception of you is the only one that actually matters is hence so powerful.

“Success isn’t how your life looks to others, its about how it feels to you”, said Michelle Obama and I couldn’t agree more.