Just be yourself and do your best.

These have to be the two most ridiculous pieces of advice, ever. Based in complacency, these statements breed comfort in okay.

Before I go further, I will preface with the following: on a personal level, by all means, be yourself and embrace your inner awesomeness. Love who you want, be who you are, have your beliefs. Provided you aren’t hurting anyone, you have my full support and respect. Enjoy.

Moving on to the professional or business side of things. Unless you are literally the most interesting person to have graced Earth and the absolutely perfect at what you do... I recommend you be someone else than yourself and do better, much better. 

So, rather than just being yourself, be the best version of you and go a little further. Leverage your best qualities and get out into the land of discomfort. I assure you will grow and, in fact, improve yourself continuously. It may sound unpleasant and, believe me, it is. But it is rewarding and a never ending process. You have to learn to appreciate the journey and accept that you will need to adapt and grow constantly to stay viable in today's harsh world.

The same goes with doing your best. Likely, your best just isn’t good enough. That is a tough pill to swallow. If you can acknowledge this as fact, you have an incredible advantage as most cannot accept this as truth. Real improvement can only begin once you accept your current reality. Provided you make the necessary efforts, which is also a challenge for many (I have met too many people who expect instant greatness, I’m still looking for that recipe, but I digress), your best will become better. Rinse and repeat, over and over again.

On a final note, should you decide to better yourself and your skill set, please do not let success be your downfall. Sadly, many who have begun to cumulate victories fall victim to them. Humility and effort go the wayside and complacency settles in... They are themselves and are satisfied with doing their best.

Cheers,

Charles Bari