After months of worrying and stressing, I finally received my GCSE mock results last week. I had convinced myself that I had failed everything. When I opened up my results I was over the moon, I had managed to get 7 B's an A and an A*. I had spent weeks and weeks worrying and getting myself in a panic for absolutely nothing. I am constantly too hard on myself and I put myself down straight away, something that I am trying to change. When I got home my parents were thrilled as they knew how hard I had worked to achieve these grades, but my brother being a little stirrer said - "Well they aren't all A's are they". And there was a part of me, a tiny little part in the back of my mind, that agreed with him.

I think we put so much pressure on ourselves to achieve perfection when really it isn't needed. I got amazing grades, and grades that I am extremely proud of and that I would be happy with if this was the real thing and yet I still felt a little bad? That's not right at all.

Not everybody is going to achieve a perfect score of all A's and A*'s and I think we need to stop comparing ourselves to the people that do. It is okay to strive for perfection but it is not okay to beat yourself up for it when it doesn't happen. One persons idea of perfection may be completely different to the person standing next to them.

All that matters is that you work hard in order to feel good about what you have done, and achieve the best that you can. It's about setting yourself a goal and working towards it. Worrying wont solve anything, it will just make you feel bad about yourself when actually you are doing pretty well. Don't compare your winnings with somebody else's. They don't know the journey that you had to take to get there.

Be a warrior not a worrier.

Ciara x