BEING THE BEST OR DOING YOUR BEST?

I’ve been in a place where I hesitated about everything I wanted to do or create, because it never seemed good enough to meet the expectations I had set for myself. Thought I wasn’t the best, so instead of trying to do my best, I procrastinated everything I had planned.

I know for a fact this is something really common on the creative side of things. Expectations and appearances are high, and if you can’t reach the level you’ve envisioned in your head and bring it into the real world, then it feels easier not to do it at all.

But where do we draw that line? Are we creating expectations based on creatives we’ve followed for years—whose journeys have been decades long, and whose experience multiplies ours? I started to question that. And instead of competing for that prize, I started competing for the one I can actually reach now, in the present. The future me will aim for that prize.

Doing your best now to accomplish your current goals is completely valuable. It’s beautiful, and it’s part of the process. Rome wasn’t built in a day—and if they hadn’t started then, there would be no Rome now. The same goes for every major accomplishment achieved by any so-called “successful” person today.

I flipped the switch, and immediately felt different: more secure, happier, more productive, and closer to the future version of me—the one who will be where the present version cannot yet reach.

I’ve always believed that doing the best you can is more valuable than simply being “the best.” Maybe you can’t have one without the other.

But one thing’s for sure: you can’t have either without a beginning—wherever that may be. Don’t underestimate yourself, because no one judges you more harshly than you judge yourself.