Arbitrary Self-Importance Will Taint Your Identity

You often wish a thing were true, but this does not make it so. Reality only bends in its own way, never totally mastered or obeyed. A thought originating in your mind is no more real or important than any other. You alone are not the determiner. It takes practice and skill to align your mind with what is.

If you don’t survey the territory before you engage, you run blindly into whatever awaits you. There is a separation between your internal and external experience. You believe more than what is accurate. Reality is not enough for you, so you inflate your inner world to be something more. Because you are frightened by downfall, you assume invincibility.

Distorted certainty is the cheapest form of empowerment. It can give a temporary boost to your activity. It can help you break ground on an intimidating obstacle, but it will not last. Your confidence compensations will fade, and you’ll find yourself back in the groundless place where you began. You haven’t moved a single pace, only imagined so. No amount of false pretense could change the reality of where you are.

Arrogance will blind you to your own failings. Whenever things do not go your way, your broken mind will unconsciously look anywhere outside you for the cause of your misfortune. It makes you out to be a chronic victim to life’s unfairness. It also makes improvement impossible, for you cannot change what you do not acknowledge exists. You cease interacting with the world, and interact only with yourself. Your every action is masturbation.

Do not fear placing your life on the same playing field as everyone else. There are no special rules that apply exclusively to you. You are no more important simply for being you, and none of the categories you arbitrarily belong to are better because they are blessed to have you. Self-confidence becomes a poison when it raises you to a position of default exaltation.

When you look at another man, what qualities do you see that make you admire him? If you do not see those same qualities in yourself, you are not worthy of your own admiration. These are the requirements of a consistent worldview.

Your excellence does not come from your nature, but from the choices you make about what to do with your natural endowments. The moment you overlook this, you place yourself above your fellow man and exclude yourself from the laws of human action. No one is above the law. No one becomes superhuman without earning it.

Apply the same standards to yourself that you apply to the remainder of reality. Then you can be proud of what you become, and inspire others to achieve their own excellence.