About a year ago, Ronda Rousey seemed to be on top of the world. She was the undefeated face of women’s MMA and one of the UFC’s most marketable athletes. Then, in November, Holly Holm handed Rousey her first loss and things seemed to go downhill from there.
Rousey took the first blemish of her career extremely hard — she reportedly even contemplated suicide soon after — and has found herself struggling to climb out of the dark hole. Though she has still yet to step back into the Octagon and bounce back professionally, it seems that she first had to take some time to get to a better place personally.
This week, Rousey penned an emotional and inspirational essay for Refinery 29 in which she reflects on her struggles with self-esteem and how she found confidence in her imperfections. She talks about how growing up as a tomboy and not liking her body eventually led her to judo, where she found confidence and, ultimately, her calling.
Along the way, Rousey has learned quite a bit not only about her own self-esteem, but about the perception of others as well.
“The curated lives we see every day are fake. The perfect angles, the perfect outfits, the perfect lighting. That’s not reality. What is real are imperfections. What builds character and toughness is struggle. What makes us better and more human is attempting something, coming up short, and then trying again. But for women the rules seem different. Men get the luxury of being able to specialize. Women are expected to be perfect at everything.”
This is something that Rousey has spent a lot of time addressing over the past year, as she’s even starring in a new Reebok campaign that brings her “imperfections” to the forefront.
To close out the piece, Rousey delivered a great piece of advice. Instead of trying to sell people on something, she instead just suggested that they buy into themselves for who they really are.
I’m not trying to inspire you take up martial arts or be anything you’re not. But there was a time in your life when you didn’t care about being perfect. Maybe you didn’t quite understand the way the world worked then, but you also didn’t care what anyone thought.
I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that you don’t need to be perfect to be valid.
Your flaws — your unsuccessful attempts at greatness or even mediocrity — are real. They make you better. And that’s beautiful because it’s never perfect.
It’s a strong message to close out a pretty great essay, and the whole thing is worth a read.
(Via Refinery 29)
