As we strive to improve something in our lives, it’s easy to prioritize appearance over substance. This often happens when we’re concerned with status, prestige, reputation, or vanity.
Here are some examples (of which yours truly has been guilty):
- Building glamour muscles but lacking functional strength.
- Adding to an already large collection of sparsely read books.
- Following an extensive skincare routine while eating shittily.
- Buying an expensive thing to signal wealth.
A problem arises when you spend more time hiding or avoiding your deficiencies than it would take to meaningfully address or accept them.
Resist the charades. It’s rarely worth the effort to outwardly display qualities that aren’t inherently (and often invisibly) present. Instead, develop inherent qualities, skills, and values rather than settling for the appearance of them.
“We think things that appeal to all people who are not actually rich but who want to look rich, though all they manage to do is look like each other: damasks, ebony, plants, rugs and bronzes, anything dark and gleaming — everything that all people of a certain class affect so as to be like all other people of a certain class.”
~Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych (Short Story)
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”
~Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Book)
