Acknowledgment vs. Recognition

Getting acknowledgement for a task or accomplishment feels good and we all need it from time to time. Recognition is similar but is based more extrinsically. I have grappled with this recently quite a bit. My motivation to do something stems from a place of recognition and this isn’t healthy. We all from time to time will invite people over to light a fire under our asses to clean. But when it is the only reason you care is rooted in what someone ELSE might think … It feels heavy. I have always been a high achieving people pleaser. Often seeking the acknowledgement for a job well done but the motivator was initially intrinsic not based on an extrinsic need for recognition. The ability to share every aspect a day on social media, seeking recognitoon can be an addictive drug. With drawing from recognition is similar to withdrawing from an addictive substance (without the physiolocal symptoms of the flu or a cold like with opioids or tremors or DTs like with    ETOH) however  the crankiness, the labole mood, and feeling of being unrooted, and breaking those micro habits associated with the drug of choice are real. I broke up with Facebook. I have done it before. It’s an on again off again kind of relationship… (I had one of those in my 20’s… )  it’s not sustainable. It’s not balanced. It’s awesome and horrible at the same time. And at some point you realize… This just can’t keep going on. I need to just quit this bull shit. So I did. I deactivated (it’s not like I threw away everything from that relationship in 20’s either. I still got a box of pictures stashed somewhere. ) So I am not about to delete Facebook, I got a decade of pics on there! It’s been a week so far. I am definitely going through withdrawals. But I rebounded with twitter!!!! It’s better, streamlined… Only 140 characters… Yeah  like an alcoholic who gave up booze for cigarettes. Fuck. Well… Now I am weaning off “the tweeter.”  I am not quitting IG. It’s like my coffee. You’ll pry coffee from my dead fingers … Though I might go on a caffeine detox from time to time… I will NEVER entirely quit all Social media… No matter how many studies say it scientifically proven to contribute  to depression, obesity, and sitting with an open jar of peanut butter at 1 am..  Ok maybe not the last one. It’s not scientifically proven…

So here I am looking at my female personality archetype (thanks to Dana James) and had this aha moment. Working on being more aware of my achieving and nurturing facets to my core. Being aware is the first step.

Acknowledgement vs recognition any thoughts about this? Share in the comments below. Thanks for reading.