Something I have noticed about successful people (define successful as you like) is that they tend to stay very close to their own personal reality. By “own personal reality” I mean things like: how (objectively) good they are at their job, the quality of their relationships, or the state of their finances. When a gap opens up between our perception and reality in these areas we often run into trouble. Some great ways I have seen to stay close to your reality are:

• Put your ideas into the world to find out if they resonate

• Demand (real) feedback from others, and be prepared to hear it

• Have a monthly update with your significant other to find out whether you’re on the same page about how things are going

• Get an objective view of your personal finances (eg. use a tool to aggregate and track your spending, pay your credit card down from your savings as purchases happen, not at the end of the month from future earnings)

• Write down your technique for anything so that you can see what it is, and it can be critiqued and evolved (you have a technique for everything, whether you recognise it or not)

Reality is not always kind to us, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s reality and that we should try to stay as close to it as possible.