Discover One Unexplored, Surprising Cost of Progress

What's the true cost of progress? Leveling up tends to bring a lot of discomfort.

It's OK to Embrace Ambition

I love determination. I appreciate ambition. I'm inspired by people who try to do their best. Maybe it's a part of the whole "American dream" that many of us are taught growing up. Maybe it's just a desire to always be continuing to improve. Maybe it's a function of never quite feeling "good enough".

Maybe it's all of the above?!

That being said, I think it's ok to strive and work hard for something we care about. I see this all the time in peers who do things like train hard for marathons, get advanced degrees, improve their business or secure the next big promotion. I think it's really cool to go after something that you want. It takes a lot of courage to be ambitious, knowing that you might stumble, or fail, and that people might also notice. It's incredibly vulnerable to be audacious.

With that, I don't think that we talk enough about the cost of embracing ambition and trying to get to the "next level."

The True Cost of Progress

We often talk a lot about all the wonderful goals, and achievements, we have especially on social media but rarely do I see people recognizing the mental health costs of progress. Progress often means much more discomfort. Of course, it feels good to make progress and get closer to goals that are meaningful to you, but I've found that even these really good moments come at the cost of peace of mind.

For some people, the discomfort of moving forward is a minimal, bearable adjustment. For others, moving up can also activate some long-held anxieties that you thought you had worked through long ago. This is something I experience when I take on a new project or learn a new skill - I consider it to be the burden of being a high-achieving student for most of my life. Always striving and always in competition with peers and myself. It's the burden of the old saying, "as long as you do your best, it'll all work out."

That means that my best (for now) has to be better than my previous best...perpetually.

Sound familiar at all?

Like most things, progress can also be a double-edged sword - making you oscillate between excitement over a new challenge and disruptive nervousness and anxiety until that thing is done. This isn't to say that either of these experiences is better than the other, perhaps they just exist as they are and we can do well for ourselves by making sure we understand the mental health cost of leveling up.