There is a version of everyone on LinkedIn that seems to have life completely figured out.
They are constantly achieving.
Constantly growing.
Constantly learning.
Constantly grateful.
Every week, someone is celebrating a new position, a promotion, a certification, an award, a new project or another “exciting milestone.”
And somehow, everyone is thriving.
You open LinkedIn on a Monday morning and immediately feel as though you have done absolutely nothing with your life.
Someone has just completed a course.
Someone else has been promoted.
Another person has launched a business.
Someone has been selected for an international fellowship.
Another has “started a new chapter” at a company you have never heard of.
And you are sitting there wondering whether you should have achieved more by now.
But here is the thing:
LinkedIn is not necessarily showing you people’s lives.
It is showing you their announcements.
There is a difference.
Nobody posts:
“I applied for 37 jobs and received 36 rejection emails.”
Nobody writes:
“After months of trying, I am still not sure what I am doing.”
Nobody announces:
“I got promoted, but I am exhausted.”
Nobody posts:
“I have been questioning whether I am actually good at this.”
Instead, we get:
“Thrilled to announce…”
“Excited to share…”
“Honoured and humbled…”
“Delighted to embark on this new journey…”
There is nothing wrong with celebrating achievements.
People deserve to be proud of their work.
The problem begins when we forget that we are comparing our entire lives with other people’s carefully selected highlights.
You see the person who just became a manager.
You don’t see the years they spent applying for jobs, making mistakes, being rejected and wondering whether they were progressing at all.
You see the person who announces their new role.
You don’t see the dozens of applications that came before it.
You see the certificate.
You don’t see the evenings they spent studying after work.
You see the success story.
You don’t see the uncertainty that came before it.
And sometimes, you don’t even see the whole truth.
Because LinkedIn has developed its own language.
Everything is “a journey.”
Everything is “an opportunity to grow.”
Every setback becomes “a valuable learning experience.”
Every inconvenience is apparently “a blessing in disguise.”
Someone can lose their job and write a beautifully worded post about embracing unexpected transitions.
And honestly, good for them.
But somewhere behind that polished paragraph is probably a person who was stressed, worried about money and unsure what would happen next.
We rarely see that part.
Social media has taught us to package uncertainty into inspiration.
And LinkedIn does this particularly well.
There is pressure to sound successful even when you are still figuring things out.
You have to appear ambitious but not desperate.
Confident but not arrogant.
Busy but not overwhelmed.
Successful but humble.
You have to announce your achievements in a way that makes them sound effortless.
And if you spend enough time scrolling, you can begin to believe that everyone around you is moving forward while you are standing still.
They are not.
People are simply moving at different speeds, in different directions and under different circumstances.
Some people get their dream jobs at 23.
Others find their path at 33.
Some people become managers quickly.
Others spend years building expertise without a fancy title.
Some people know exactly what they want.
Others are still trying to figure it out.
None of that makes one person more worthy than another.
And perhaps we need to remember that LinkedIn is a professional platform, not a documentary.
People use it to present their professional identities.
Of course they are going to show their achievements.
You probably would too.
If you spent six months working towards a qualification and finally got it, you might post about it.
If you got a new job, you might announce it.
If your business reached an important milestone, you might celebrate it.
That does not mean you are pretending.
It simply means you are sharing one part of your life.
The problem is what happens when the audience forgets that.
When someone else’s announcement becomes evidence that you are behind.
When another person’s promotion makes you question your own progress.
When you start measuring your life according to other people’s timelines.
That is when LinkedIn stops being useful and starts becoming exhausting.
Because success does not always come with a post.
Some of the most important progress in someone’s life will never appear on LinkedIn.
Learning to manage your money.
Recovering from failure.
Becoming more disciplined.
Finding confidence.
Leaving a situation that was not good for you.
Learning a new skill quietly.
Figuring out what you actually want.
Those things may never receive a “Congratulations!” in the comments.
But they still count.
So scroll through LinkedIn if you want.
Celebrate people’s achievements.
Congratulate them.
Be inspired.
But don’t let someone’s announcement convince you that your own life is a failure.
The person announcing their fifth promotion may be struggling with something you know nothing about.
The person celebrating a new opportunity may have spent years wondering whether it would ever happen.
And the person who seems to have everything together may be looking at someone else’s profile and wondering why they haven’t achieved more.
Because behind all those polished announcements are ordinary people.
People who are still figuring things out.
People who get rejected.
People who get tired.
People who change direction.
People who sometimes have absolutely no idea what they are doing.
In other words, people like you.
So perhaps the healthiest way to use LinkedIn is to remember one simple thing:
You are looking at people’s résumés, not their lives.
And nobody is as successful as they are on LinkedIn.
Not even the person writing the post.