Becoming Uncomfortable with Your Comfortable Illusions

There is some part of you that is dissatisfied and knows that you can be more than you are now. Almost no one believes they are the very best version of themselves, and as far as I can tell, no one has ever reached their full potential, not DaVinci, not Einstein, and certainly not you or me.

When you look at the results you generated at the end of each week, something gnaws at you. You know you were capable of doing more, but another week has passed, each one looking very much like the one that preceded it. Are you working smart enough and hard enough to bring your goals to life (the very meaning of the word “hustle)? Are you as productive as you should be?

If your life doesn’t resemble the ideal you hold in your mind’s eye, and if you don’t have what you want, you are no different from most of the human population on Earth. You are very literally surrounded by proof that what you want is possible, and people who started behind the starting line you stand on now have found a way to have what you want.

My philosophy is that one of the ways you will judge your success, in the end, will be the contribution you make to others and the causes you care about. It’s difficult to contribute unless you take care of what is written in three paragraphs above. Solve for those, and you have solved for contribution.

Your Illusions

If you are not yet who you want to be, it is because you are comfortable with the illusion that high school and college was the end of your growth, your development, and your education, none of which quite prepared you to be the best version of yourself.

If you are not exerting the effort necessary to bring your goals to life, they will not come into being. It is doubtful that you cannot do what is required, and it more likely that you are trying hard enough. You are comfortable with the illusion that you are doing what you need to do.

If you are like most people, you have settled for what you have. Maybe what you have is enough. Or perhaps you are just comfortable with the illusion that you have all you need—or all you deserve.

The first step to improvement is to refuse to be comfortable with the illusion. From this illusion, you can see the next. From that one, you will see the one that follows.