A client came to me unsure about her next career move.
She'd built something significant in her current role, but felt there was more to explore. Together we landed on an idea: a short internship in a different area, just to test the waters without giving anything up.
But then she told me she couldn't do that yet. Not until her current project was finished.
I asked her: finished to what percentage?
Seventy, she said.
Then she listed everything still missing to reach a hundred.
While talking about it, we both realized she won't get there in any reasonable time. Not because she's not capable, but because she will always find something else to improve, something else to finish.
She will always move her own goalpost.
But why?
Is her boss pushing her? Does the company desperately need her to finish the project?
No and no. It is herself.
She is measuring against an ideal. An ideal that keeps moving as she grows.
And measuring yourself against an evolving ideal will always leave you in the negative. It will always produce the feeling of not there yet, or not good enough.
I stopped her.
"You started this role in January. What percentage existed then?" Zero, she said. "And today?" About seventy.
She said it herself. Zero to seventy in a few months. But she couldn't see it.
"You are telling me you did all of that in a couple of months."
She went quiet.
That's the gap. Not the thirty percent missing. The seventy percent she couldn't see.
Most of us measure from where we want to be, not from where we started. From that angle you will never be far enough. You will always find the next thing to fix before you let yourself move.
The goalpost doesn't move because you're failing. It moves because you're growing.
I catch myself doing this too. For a long time I was measuring myself against people ten years further down the road, completely blind to how far I'd already come.
The question isn't whether you're ready. It's whether you're measuring from the right place.