Why you should stop comparing your nail skills to others
By Guest Writer | 22 December 2020 | Expert Advice, Feature, Health & wellbeing, Tech Talk
Scratch magazine 2020 columnist, Sophie Dale of Nancy Loves Nails & Nancy Girl Apparel, shares why it’s time to stop comparing yourself to others…
‘Comparison is the thief of joy’. I constantly compare myself to others and it has really affected me. It’s poisonous, and no matter how experienced or whatever level you are at, we all still do it.
It’s human; it’s natural. It’s something we pick up from an early age and it’s hard to grow out of. Being a nail tech in a quickly growing and competitive community doesn’t leave you unscathed.
Like any behaviour, as my therapist once told me, they are learnt. It’s going to take you longer to get out of it than it did to get into it. So, get ready for the journey (because it is a journey!) and be ready to want to change. It’s little steps at a time. These behaviours may come back from time to time, but we need to learn how to direct them another way.
How to combat it
First of all, be aware of when you’re comparing yourself to others. For me, it depends on my mood. If I’m feeling pretty rubbish, I know my first port of call is Instagram to start beating myself up about how I’m not as good as everyone else in the industry.
No matter how experienced you are, you will still find yourself in the spiral of comparison every so often. No matter what level you are, there are always going to be others better than you (or what you perceive as ‘better’) – that’s a fact!
By being aware that I’m in that mood when I’m going to start scrolling, I try and remember the following…
1. Stop the scrolling
Try a social media detox. It can be poisonous to keep scrolling Instagram or Facebook looking at others’ work or accomplishments and thinking you don’t do enough. Everyone is on their own journey, and you need to focus on yourself and remember what you have accomplished – which leads to the next pointer.
2. Write down your accomplishments
Remember, you can’t do everything, and that’s ok. I am the type of person who is obsessive and thinks I constantly need to do everything to be successful or to be noticed. Sometimes, just being you and doing you is what makes you stand out and be different. Losing the baggage of caring about everyone else is doing is hard, but it’s a relief to put down.
Write down your accomplishments from this week, month, or even year.
Little accomplishments add up to big ones. You don’t have to achieve goals all the time; it’s good to take time out.
3. Make peace with imperfections
People only post what they deem as ‘perfect’ for social media. This mean that probably only a very small fraction of what they actually create in the salon. It’s a big realisation.
Not every pair of hands we touch and work on are going to look perfect or ‘Instagrammable’. If your client is happy with your work, that is all that matters.
Remember, people don’t post their failures. Instagram is like the trailer for a film: it doesn’t show all the boring bits.