The Shocking Truth about Being Beautiful
Everyone is beautiful just the way they are except greedy billionaires, self-serving politicians of the opposite party, and powerful old white men who think women should have babies, cook dinner, and stay out of the board room.
Being beautiful:
You aren’t beautiful just the way you are. The beauty of being human requires only existence. We all have it. Smart people and stupid, competent and incompetent, democrat and republican, skinny and fat, red, yellow, black, and white. The beauty of being human cannot be improved. But there’s a rigorous side to beauty.
Achieving beauty:
You are beautiful and you have far to go. The beauty of growth and contribution are achievements that confront complacency.
You don’t control innate beauty. It doesn’t matter what you do or can do. But bringing your beauty to the world demands sweat.
Unrealized potential is beautiful in infants, not a 35-year-old. If your heart thumps and your brain cogitates, and your finger can wiggle just a little, you have something to contribute. Even when you require care from others, gratitude is your contribution to them. (And we all require contribution from others.)
Loving yourself:
Loving yourself isn’t loving everything about yourself. Indulgent self-love destroys us with apathy. When you love yourself, you do things that honor your beauty like growing and giving.
Love yourself enough to polish your potential and bring it to the world. The world needs you because you’re beautiful.
I’m not sure what to ask after this rant. I hope it’s encouraging in an upside-down way.
Added resource: Life’s Great Question by Tom Rath.
Achieving beauty is having:
-no worries
-no fears
-no anger
-no jealousy
-an open heart
-a curious mind
-a generous, helpful, and grateful spirit
I am reminded of the adage “Handsome is as handsome does.” Being unpleasant to those around you means they won’t want to be around you, no matter how you look.
…and powerful old white men who think women should have babies, cook dinner, and stay out of the board room.
Oh, so this trait only pertains to white men…offensive !
“gratitude is your contribution to them” struck a chord for me. There are situations where we are without power or means, where we are dependent on others but we still have the agency to be grateful and express gratitude. Maybe receiving is typically experienced as either weakness (I can’t do for myself) or as part of a commercial exchange (bring me food and I might tip you.) Gratitude transforms the act of receiving into something beautiful.
There is also something beautiful about teams that are totally aligned and in the flow state.