I was invited to a birthday party last week by someone I've never met.
It came as an email (Pretty sure a group email), but it had my first name on the invitation.
It was inviting me to a glamorous, star-studded event in the capital city, which would also be a birthday party for two of Britain's most famous up-and-coming, successful, wonderful, beautiful dental professionals (Apparently).
I looked at the bottom of the email, which had been sent by one of the individuals mentioned, to note that they were one of the top 50 most influential people in the United Kingdom in the years 2020, 2021 and 2023 (notably not 2022 or 2024).
I wondered what had happened in those years and why they felt it was necessary to publish that at the bottom of the email, telling anyone who may read it (Obviously me too) of their suggested accolades.
I wondered why I was invited by someone I'd never met, never spoken to or had any connection with (I was made aware of these dentists by a friend of mine a little while ago, but I had never really come across them).
I fell into the trap of checking them out.
On the face of it, very successful businesspeople have a single website for all of the practices that are at multiple locations.
I started to drop into the horrible world of FOMO. I felt inadequate until I realised that I knew nothing of their story, nothing of their background, nothing of the troubles that they may have or the successes that they may have achieved, and my life had been fine before I read that email and would be fine afterwards.
It reminded me of 'this too shall pass', a wonderful saying from old Persia.
Why I ever bothered to open the email remains a mystery, but never mind I'm busy washing my hair that night (if I had any).
Blog Post Number - 3980