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You Don’t Have to Be Extraordinary.
You have more control over small things.
Perhaps you have it too. You caught the “greatness bug.” You think you have to be not just “good” at writing, but Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Gilbert, Stephen King, David Sedaris level good. You start businesses with a goal for them to become international successes. You assume that someday you’ll be famous, recognized, give a TED talk, write a bestseller, make an online course, go on podcasts, and retire somewhere in southern France, sipping your cold glass of Chablis while your highly-diversified investment portfolio brings you dividends.
You push yourself. And whenever you don’t live up to your personal standards, you blame yourself.
We call such people Type-A’s or “go-getters” (whatever that means). But the biggest problem with such an attitude is that a person has to work really hard to feel OK — constantly checking themselves not to fall short of their own standards. When you tie your self-worth to your work — you’re in a risky position. One slip and you feel like a failure.
Assuming that you won’t ever become successful can help. The moment you tell yourself, “I will never become the super crazy success I see online,” everything changes. At first, it freaks you out (“What?!”), but after a while, it actually makes you feel better.
