More and more often, people are caught up in all of the numbers that pop up in life. These can be signifying your GPA, your percent grade on a test, your weight — anything.

I was the type of person who would feel like a complete and utter failure if I did not score above a 90 on a test in school. Even if I knew I did the absolute best I could, I was unhappy if it was below that grade.

Don’t even get me started on how I felt if my grade came back as an 89 or if the person next to me got one point higher, even if I did get that 90.

Now, deep down I knew this was just my perfectionism talking and that any number was just fine as long as I tried my best.

But I just couldn’t let it be good enough.

Oh, and that number on the scale? I had issues with that number, too. I let it define me as a person. If I was a pound heavier than I was the last time I weighed myself, I considered myself to be overweight, ugly and imperfect.

I hated when I had friends skinnier than I was because it was a competition and a constant game of comparing myself to them. If it wasn’t the number I was happy with, it meant I wasn’t good enough. The problem was, I could never find a number that I was happy with, and that meant I wasn’t ever good enough for myself.

That was until I realized that we, as human beings, are not defined by numbers.

We are all imperfect, and in fact, I truly believe that there is no such thing as a perfect being. We are all flawed, and we all make mistakes. That’s what makes us human.

So what if you failed that test? Strive to come back better next time and show yourself that you’re better than that.

Maybe you gained a few pounds, who cares? If you don’t like it, you can change it. If you really don’t care, then embrace who you are.

Your self-worth is not based on any number or any person's idea or impression of you based on a number — or anything else you do with your life. Because it’s your life.

Because it’s your life.

We all need to stop stressing about the numbers and the pressures to be society's idea of perfect. Each of us has our own unique things to offer this world, and that makes every single one of us our own amazing self.