There was a time when people lived in their own little world and knew very little about what was going on outside of their immediate family or local community. But now technology allows us to communicate with people all over the world in an instant. We can watch live video of events happening around the world. This has given us a broader view of the world. But it has also raised our expectations of our own lives and led us to desire material things and experiences that previous generations never dreamed of.

In the past we only heard a moderately good singer in our own community and we thought that was wonderful. Now television and the Internet allow us to listen to world-class singers with whom very few people can compete. In the past, the local high school sports athlete was considered amazing. Now it pales in comparison to what professional athletes accomplish on a daily basis. In the past, the local pastor’s sermons were often inspiring. Now we’re comparing him to a TV or radio preacher, and he rarely compares well. We see actors with perfect bodies, perfect hair, perfect clothes, and perfect complexions and then we look in the mirror and often feel inadequate about how we look. We watch shows on TV that feature dream homes and amazing gardens, and suddenly our little patch of grass doesn’t look so great after all. Technology has clearly raised our expectations to almost perfect levels.

The problem with this is twofold. First of all, very few of us have the ability to hit the perfect dunk, or sing with perfect pitch, or have the perfect body. We are much less than perfect. In the past, we only compared ourselves to those around us and often felt like we were at least average. But now we’re comparing ourselves to the best of the best and we feel way below average. This is an unfair comparison and we should not do it. But technology has exposed us to these seemingly perfect people, so it’s hard not to see our shortcomings much more clearly than previous generations.

This brings us to the second half of the problem, which is our motivating factor. When we compared ourselves to our siblings or next door neighbors, we knew that if we tried hard enough, we could compete well. We might not always be the best at everything, but we knew that if we put in the effort, we could do well enough to earn the respect of those around us. But now, the stakes have been raised to unrealistic levels. The bar for success is now so high that most of us know we can’t do what we see people on TV or the Internet doing. This can destroy our motivation and make us feel like it’s not worth trying. Too many of us have become unmotivated perfectionists.

We tend to want everything to be perfect as we see it on TV or on the internet, but since we know we can’t reach that level of perfection, we don’t bother trying at all. Of course, if we don’t try, we are guaranteed to fail. This reinforces our idea that we cannot succeed. We can get caught in a cycle of wanting perfection but being unmotivated to even try to achieve it. That is a very depressing way to live.

One way to break out of this cycle of unmotivated perfection is to realize that we are actually good at a lot of things. We may not be perfect. But we can achieve a lot if we try. Maybe we should stop trying to be the next superstar and try to be the best “us” we can be. Even if we never win American Idol or write a successful novel or have the perfect body, we should work hard at the things that are important to us and enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes with hard work. We should stop comparing ourselves to people on TV and the internet and focus on being the best we can be in our little corner of the universe. This can help us feel better about ourselves. It will also help us achieve much more than we thought we could.