Your "Acceptable" is Unacceptable

This goes for all of us — myself included.

We tell ourselves every day we are

Beautiful the way we are.
Smart enough.
Hardworking.
Attractive enough.
Fit enough.
Financially sound enough…

And so on.

But, are you? Are you really?

So, if your weight is acceptable to you, but someone gave you an instant “sexy weight” button, you wouldn’t press it, right?

If your intellect is acceptable to you, but someone gave you an instant “Einstein” button, you wouldn’t press it, right?

If your fitness is acceptable to you, but someone gave you an instant “elite gymnast body” button, you wouldn’t press it, right?

If your finances are acceptable to you, but someone gave you an instant “billionaire” button, you wouldn’t press it, right?

Wrong.

You are delusional and narcissistically proud if you really, truly believe you wouldn’t instantly press any of those buttons.

But these buttons don’t exist, so we don’t have to worry about being inconsistent with the manner in which we present ourselves and our “this is acceptable” belief systems.

So, why do we lie to ourselves about these things?
Why do we tell ourselves we are acceptable when we know we are falling short?

Because we know the level of dedication, obsession, sacrifice, and raw hard word all of these things — great fitness, stable finances, intellect, spiritual soundness, etc — require of us.

And we aren’t willing to make the sacrifices.
We are unwilling to put in the work.

By all means — insist to yourself you in your current state are “perfect” and “acceptable.”

But, also, simultaneously know that you can be more. You once had great dreams — maybe as a child, a teen, or young adult — and something happened. You changed your yardstick of “acceptable” for yourself, and are know just going through the motions.

Stay on the Eudaimonic Path. Climb its Infinite Mountain. 

Physical Wellness.
Spiritual Wellness.
Relationship Wellness.
And Financial Wellness.

We cannot allow ourselves to fall too in love with our current forms.

After all…
The caterpillar is destined for something that is a worldwide model for pure beauty. 
And so are you.

Follow for daily philosophical meditations.

These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”