“The thing that makes someone swipe right on you on Tinder may not be what you want to be in the long run”

Seth Godin

I’m sure we’ve all been in a situation where we tell ourselves we “need” to do this to get what we want. It could be work. It could be education. It could even be a relationship. We act differently in a way we may not like under the assumption that we can eventually just get what we want and we’ll be fine.

But the world likes consistency. That is our essential idea of someone authentic. We trust that person would act similarly whether we are in the room or not.

So every act we do, every word we say, is a promise about who we are. And promises are meant to be kept. So the question is, do you believe the promises you’re making now are ones you want to keep?

It’s easy to see this with how our education system is set up. The mentality of focused effort towards one objective to get a good grade. Working diligently to get into a good college. Then working even harder to stand out for a job. What’s the goal here? We think it’s worth sacrificing part of our lives for some end. But the end has an expectation. The teacher, recruiter, boss all have an expectation. And that expectation is that you will stay consistent with the person they see applying for the job. So will you?

I’m not saying don’t change. Nobody is actually consistent, because each day is an opportunity to think differently and reinvent our goals. But my question is, if we already know we are different, why are we making false promises? Why are we pretending to be someone we aren’t? It only takes us to a goal that requires us to be different from who we want to be.

If you make your promises with the best intentions, however, based on who you are now, it’s easy to get to where you want to be. Because you’re already there. Everything else is just a journey for you to walk along and possibly affect others while you stay true to yourself.

So what are you telling the world about yourself? If it’s something you wish you weren’t doing, the only point where things getter better, is the moment when you decide to pursue what you truly want. Everything else is just external.