A negative side effect of shame, insecurities, or comparison, you can’t say you are an author unless you are a “successful” one. Its easy when you have been featured on the New York Times Bestseller List. We struggle to say, “I’m an artist,” when we are not profitable. Because the other ways we measure are not easily quantifiable.
The list of areas we like to see get better is far longer than the list of things we do well. In the toxic words of fictional serial killer, Patrick Bateman, “You can always be thinner…look better.”
If we are going to compare something we have to have a unit of measure and something to compare it to. Far too often, what we are really asking does it make money? It’s an undertone and a byproduct of a world that put to the center markets.
We have to figure out what makes us happy. Because if we continue to put money at the center, which based on an economy of growth and more, then we are going to run without much meaning at the center.
I don’t find it a coincidence that in an economy that is based on growth there is such a high demand on personal growth.