Dave Kashen explains how founders create idealized versions of themselves, then suffer comparing their reality to that image. Social media amplifies this, making leaders feel like they're operating at half capacity when they're actually fine.
Feeling of not operating at your full potential, I think, is— can be like a double-edged sword. I have a lot, you know, a lot of clients show up with that as an issue, like, yeah, I don't feel like I'm operating at my full potential, or like, I don't feel like I'm being my best self, or some days, um, some days I feel just so confident and in flow, and other days I feel stressed and reactive. It's a way to— it's a way our mind can make us feel bad about ourselves. Like, it's— it creates this abstract ideal image of full potential, which basically is some level of effectiveness, confidence that's greater than the current level. Um, and then a lot of people can then focus on the gap between where they are and this mind-created idea of some even better way they should be and create a lot of suffering and frustration. So it's a real double-edged sword because, uh, you know, we all, I think, want to be our best and recognize there's times where we're not operating at our best and would like to operate at our best more and more of the time. But at the same time, I just see a lot of leaders, um, fall into this pattern of like constantly feeling behind, feeling like they're not where they should be, feeling like they are falling short of this abstract idea of full potential. And it could be that it's the comparing mind looking at, you know, other leaders where they seem to be operating all the time, right? Like it's You know, we, you know, it's, there's some metaphor with like, it's like a bunch of robots and you see, you know, your robot like in the back is all like duct tape and bubble gum together. Um, and the front, it looks all polished. Then you see everyone else's and you just assume theirs are all perfectly, you know, polished inside and out. Um, because we don't see the, you know, how the sausage is made in other people's world. And, you know, we sort of get this— it's like this social media glossed view of everyone else, whereas we have the full picture of ourselves. So it's just really easy for the mind to compare you to others or compare you to some abstract ideal as a way to make you feel like you're not enough.
