The Idea Of Feeling Like You "Deserve Something"

For a long time, I've agreed with this blog post.

In summary: WHY do you think you deserve something over someone else? No-one deserves anything, they need to work for what they have. Both the author of the linked blog and myself see a lot of people saying they deserve a lot of things... for no reason at all. "I deserve a better job": not if you're incompetent. "I deserve a nice person to be with": not if you're an asshole. As if it's their God-given right to have something. The author Ayn Rand is another big player for this idea, even coming up with her of philosophy on it: Objectivism.

But then I read this post (in particular, the line: "The first step to getting the things you want is to believe you deserve them."), and it put the idea of "deserving something" in a different light.

It put the idea of deserving something as a pre-requisite to frame your mentality before you're able to put the work in. So, after thinking that you deserve things, you also understand that you need to work to get it and you then put the work in.

It's ultimately a gauge of self-esteem. The greater your self-esteem and idea of self-worth, the more you think you would deserve it: if you put the work in. And I totally agree with this way of thinking. We all deserve great things, the good life, the mansions. But we've got to be willing to put in the work.

So next time I hear someone saying, "I deserve X", I'll agree with them. But I hope they'll have a good work plan set up for them to then achieve that goal. Because I don't believe that geniuses are born. Geniuses are sculpted, hour by hour, as they hone their skills towards mastery. I don't know if it takes 10,000 for mastery, but I believe that Mozart, Shakespeare, and Voltaire were all great because they were willing to put in the time to realise their full potential. And I think if we all went about life in the same way to realise our potential, we'd realise we have more power to create great work - and we'd deserve more - than we think.