Avery K. Tingle, The Gamer Author

Guess what Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Jeff Bezos have in common? Beyond being obscenely wealthy?

Every single one of them have bad days.

Very rarely do we hear about it.

In Guy Kawaski’s Art of the Start 2.0, in Chapter Three, he states that “leaders cannot have a bad day”. I (the guy who has two works to show for fifteen years of effort) would try to clarify (the guy who literally helped put Apple and Google on the map. My arrogance can be boundless.)

One of the chief ways people have made social media toxic is by turning it into an impossible race. Log onto Facebook or Instagram and you’ll more than likely see the highlights of someone’s life.

That’s the problem.

Humans are instinctively competitive by nature. We see someone doing well, and we want that for ourselves. But we often fall short (we’re wired for failure as well) and that leads to spiraling depression. What makes their life so perfect? Why can’t I have what they have? What do they have that I don’t?

Yeah, that’s not the case. That’s never the case. The fact is, every single person you encounter on social media has a bad day. It doesn’t matter how much money they have, what kind of car they drive, or how successful they appear to be. Every. Single. Person. Struggles with something.

Showing off your low moments is not a weakness. It makes you appear more approachable. More human. Beyond that, showing off your low moments gives you the opportunity to present how you deal with them, or what you’ve learned from them.

People on Tiktok understand this, which is part of why the app is so successful. Yes, we all have high moments. For the first time though, people are showing their raw, authentic selves through social media. You see the tears. You see the struggles. You see the real.

The fact is, we all deal with bad days. We all have low moments. But instead of rubbing everyone’s faces in the illusions that our lives are perfect, presenting ourselves as we actually are gives us the ability to come together to solve our problems as a community, rather than making us feel so alone and unheard all the time.

I hope your bad days are few and far apart. I also hope you find the courage to share them. We all might learn something.

Thanks for reading.

Avery K. Tingle is a scifi/fantasy author currently residing in the Las Vegas area. Owned by two cats, he is passionate about social justice, Star Wars, and mental health. Connect to his award-winning writing and social media here.