I've been learning Salsa for a few months now, and am finally beginning to get the hang of putting different routines together. It has been like learning a new language. First you learn the words, then you learn the grammar and then you use it to form sentences. Only later will you use it to convey what you are feeling. Salsa has been similar. Now that I'm learning to put different routines together (forming sentences with the words), I almost never end up executing exactly what I originally wanted to. I start with a routine in mind and mid way through, I miss a cue or a step and then do something else. Sure, that something else is a valid move as well and it makes sense and an outsider watching may not realise that I did something other than what I originally intended to. To an outsider, it looks good (I hope).

It happens when you're putting up a play. While performing live on stage, you might miss a line or someone else on stage might miss a line, forcing you to rescue the plot by saying or doing something to steer it onwards on the original plot. You won't just stop and stand dumbfounded when something out of script happens, when a mistake happens. You work around it. And the audience will likely never notice. To them, it feels like the play was perfect.

But more often, we are the ones sitting in the audience and watching. Especially with the lives of others we know accessible anytime anywhere, we are constantly playing the part of the audience. If you are looking at someone's Facebook updates, you are the audience. If you are looking at someone's photos on Instagram, you are the audience. If you are following someone's LinkedIn profile, you are the audience.

And guess what? It nearly always looks perfect to the audience.

That successful entrepreneur who just raised a hundred million dollars while you are struggling to hold a conversation with investors for more than a few minutes. That writer who just published a novel while you are struggling to put hundred words down on a page. That friend from college who got a promotion while you are still fighting it out for one. You are the audience in each and every one of these cases.

And it always looks perfect to the audience.

I'm sure you have people who may not know you all that well that tell you how perfect your life is with everything that you are doing, just like you feel about someone else.

So, stop beating yourself up about not being perfect. What you don't see is that same entrepreneur that raised a hundred million dollars buckling under the pressure to grow his revenues and manage an ever growing team. What you don't see is the writer that published a novel wading through the hundreds of criticisms about his work.

It always looks perfect to the audience. Some decide to put on the best performance they can, while some decide to find the audience that finds their performance perfect, while many others quit thinking they are never going to be good enough to be on stage.