When it comes to the complicated issue of comparative worthiness we should brace ourselves for disappointment. There will always be someone who is smarter, richer, better looking, more talented and more able.
Fuelled by unrealistic expectations and driven by unrealised dreams, it’s not too difficult to identify gaps in our personal and working life…those places where achievements don’t necessarily match potential; where longing and desire simply don’t draw level with reality.
It’s altogether possible to become our own worst enemy; our most strident critic; a millstone of our own creation. Without regular reality checks and the occasional unemotional personal reassessment we can become self-destructive. It starts with the way we think, quickly becomes the way we act and then morphs into the way we live.
Ambition is to be encouraged. Self-improvement is always desirable. Achievable targets should always be set. But none of this should happen at the expense of satisfaction and sanity.
Being comfortable with where we are at and with what we have is an important first step. It’s only when we have consolidated where we are that we should begin to plan where we want to be. What follows then is the creation of strategies on how we are going to get there.
Everything takes time. None of us knows how much time we have. That makes today important.
Improvement and change are very personal matters and neither should be rushed. The speed at which both are done can spell the difference between success and failure. No two time scales are the same just as no two individuals are the same.
An important place to start is as simple as it can be complicated. It depends on attitude and conviction. It matters little where we are in life the only person we should try to be better than is the person we were yesterday. That’s enough to be life-changing.
Gary Bentley Counselling 