Raising Your Ceiling OR Your Floor?

 

What's your CEILING?  NO sirrrrrrrs, please DON'T take me literally because I'm referring to our own and personal limits of our capabilities in life.  And if we need proof that there is equilibrium and equity in life, it lies in the fact that each of us can boast and brag that we have our respective CEILINGs.  The catch there is that each of our CEILINGs are unique.  WHILE one can be a product designer in aeronautics, another one can go as high as a pilot WHILE someone else is best to become an in-flight purser.  Just a sampling of CEILINGs here📗📙📘

Another school of thought I came across years back is that [quite] palatable option of RAISING our FLOOR instead of RAISING our CEILING.  While raising our CEILING means the whole world to us because that opens us up to much more opportunities previously never thought us achievable, many times we missed tha fact that the issue is NEVER about one's CEILING but instead, it's on us, it's WHERE we stand, it's HOW we stand.  The Greek poet Archilochus was well quoted as follows: WE DO NOT RISE TO THE LEVEL OF OUR EXPECTATIONS.  WE FALL TO THE LEVEL OF OUR TRAINING.  And this brings us back full circle because if we accept this hypothesis, it's all about us after all💚💛💜

WHEN I stumbled across this quote, I realized that this quote absolutely destroys the perspective that keeps people mediocre.  And it rejects that ineffective mainstream ideas of growth WHICH are based on using emotional manipulation to provoke action.  And I strongly feel that this [NOT so known] quote shatters that false hope and replaces it with real hope and I found out that the more I expect of myself, the less I actually do💥💥💥

In the past, I admit that I always endeavored to keep pace with the 'rat race' out there, so I tried to be that 'ultra productive' workbot, and shockingly, the results were awful during those times.  And I realized that that was classic perfectionism at work.  I mean, as expectations rise, so does the bar to entry.  BTW, that's just the math though.  A higher bar to entry means fewer entries.  And applied in a practical manner, I believe this meant that we should NOT prioritize those 'pie-in-the-sky' achievements💚💛💜

Our takeaway:  So, this boils down to FLOOR versus CEILING. Are we about to blame the height of our CEILING, such that it is hampering our own growth OR progress?  I'd say that's quite a shaky proposition because I am more inclined to believe that much more can be attributed as to how we perform right from the FLOOR.  In real terms, we walk on the floor and though we may seem to sometimes fantasize about flying to the CEILING, day after day, to our dismay, it is the FLOOR we find ourselves on.  NOW let's think carefully about our life, the UPs and DOWNs in it.  And stated simply, the greatest threat to our well-being is our regression.  That is, the greatest threat ISN'T that we CAN'T fly to the CEILING BUT instead, it is us WHEN we crash on the FLOOR.  So, are we RAISING OUR CEILING OR OUR FLOOR???