We tend to feel pressured to follow the latest trends. We are being overloaded with opportunities we need to try if we want to succeed in life. Yet we fail to see how that limiting belief is being drilled into our brains is.

We feel like no matter how great our accomplishments and successes are, there will always be another person who did it bigger and better. We are one click away from the pressure that our fear of missing out creates. The moment we decide to check our social media is the moment we fall deep into the comparison trap.

First, there is the curiosity that we’re not part of the experience we’re viewing. Then comes the ping of anxiety as our brains begin to analyze why our lives are nothing like the dreamy and magical adventures our favorite influencer encounters almost every day. Finally, there is the deafening blow that our self-esteem takes as we realize how far-fetched it is for us to have that level of happiness and perfection.

But what we forget or refuse to acknowledge and what our fear of missing out misleads us from that our social media feeds merely feature the highlights of other people’s lives, not their regular routines.

So we find ourselves in competition with these people we’ve never met. This is the slippery slope of FOMO as social media keeps adding more and more things to the list of what successful women should do and be.

There’s this emphasis lately of making every second of every day count and that every extra moment or any opening we have should be dedicated to working on improving ourselves, learning a new language, exercising, running, hiking, reading, cooking, taking more and more responsibilities as if our plate wasn’t full, to begin with.

Our FOMO tells us that if we’re not working ourselves to exhaustion and if we’re not endlessly burning the midnight oil then we are not taking full advantage of our lives. What we don’t understand is that we’re feeding the very monster that torments us. So what do we do with this internalized fear of missing out?

We have to recognize that, despite the pressures to conform being engraved in our brains, we, alone, are capable of breaking this vicious FOMO cycle. We can be the architects of our own recovery. So when feel ourselves getting sucked in and it becomes too taxing on our mental and physical health, it’s time to take action.

We must accept the difficulties that life brings our way. Instead we need to be proactive, face those challenges head-on, and make an unbreakable commitment to ourselves. One that will eventually get us to drop our fear of missing out and focus on leading a life that aligns with our purpose and values. If your mission is to be your healthiest self, then lead by example.