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Tara Allen
Best Self

The gap between who you are and who you could be

Tara Allen6 min read

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Tara writing in a notebook at her desk in morning light

Most of us aren't stuck because we lack potential. We're stuck because we've quietly accepted the version of ourselves we already know how to be.

I've been thinking a lot about the distance between the person I am on an ordinary Tuesday and the person I'm capable of being. Not the highlight-reel version. The actual, slightly-better, more honest version.

That gap isn't a character flaw. It's information. And when I stop treating it like shame and start treating it like a map, things change.

Growth is a series of small renegotiations

Nobody becomes a different person in a weekend. What actually happens is that you renegotiate one small agreement with yourself, then keep it long enough that it stops being a decision and starts being an identity.

  • Name the version of you that you're defending.
  • Pick the one agreement that version would never keep.
  • Keep it for thirty days before you evaluate it.
You don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to be willing to keep growing.

I'm not writing this from the finish line. I'm writing it from the middle, which is where most of the real work happens anyway.

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