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Hello, fellow human beings.

I’m coming to you with a message that I need to hear and need to share, which is that we are all human, which means we all struggle. The reason I’m sharing this is because my husband said to me this week, “Uh-oh, Heather; you didn’t get everything done or you’re having a hard time. That’s OK; you’re human.”

When I heard that when I was a little girl, it really, really bothered me because I didn’t like the idea of being human — being dependent on others, not being able to do everything on my own. What I realized later was that I wasn’t in an environment as a child that allowed for me to make mistakes and learn from them. In a way, even though I was told it was OK to be human, the actions didn’t back that up.

What I have learned is that when we struggle, which we all do, we have to have people, as Brene Brown likes to say, who have earned the right to hear our struggle. I recently shared a five-minute video in the Half Size Me community sharing my struggle, putting it out there.

Community members do it day in and day out. They share their struggle. They support each other. It’s a safe place for me to do that, as well. I’m sharing this with you today because, like I have in the past, I still struggle with feeling that I should be able to do this alone. I think that I shouldn’t be struggling, or that everyone else has got it, why can’t I?

I want to encourage you. Trust the fact that everybody struggles. If right now you’re following somebody or listening to somebody or watching somebody and they never share a struggle, they never seem like there’s a problem ever, I would really question that.

Think about the stereotypical used car salesman. What are they trying to do? Fix whatever is wrong with an automobile in order to get you to buy it. They want you to think it’s fine. But you and I both know there’s probably something wrong with it, and if they would just come out and say it, at least they’d be being honest.

I think that it’s really important to get this message out, that we can all be human, we can all struggle, and we can all lean on each other for support. Here’s the caveat: Make sure the person you’re sharing this with has earned the right to hear your struggle.

Just because somebody’s your family or just because they’ve been your friend doesn’t mean they get it. It doesn’t mean they understand. I just want to make sure you understand that we all do struggle, no matter how long we’ve been on this road of healthy living, and it’s OK. We are all human. We all make mistakes. I’m saying this out loud for me to hear it, just as much as I say it for you.

Please find those people who’ve earned the right to hear and share your struggle and realize that you are just like all of us — human.