Stop and think for a moment. How many times in the past 24 hours have you made an excuse to yourself because you lacked control of your life? Maybe you thought "It will be easier to do after I get some rest" or "I'll start exercising tomorrow." You may have even thought "It's too late to start. I'm already out of the game." Chances are you lie to yourself more than you notice. It has become programmed into our minds that if we put in good effort and we try it will all turn out all right.
That is the biggest heap of BS I've ever heard.
If you are not prepared to continuously push yourself to your absolute limits, you shouldn't set out to achieve something in the first place. Take a piano player for instance. If they practice long enough everyday, they will get better, no doubt about. But what if they practice every day, but only long enough to maintain their current skill level, neither improving nor getting worse. Chances are people won't notice at first, but over time the spotlight will shift to someone who puts in enough effort to improve. Our original piano player will comparatively seem to be moving backwards, whereas in reality they are staying the same.
Now you may be saying "qtip2001, you can't compare your own success to other people, we are all special in our own way." While we do all have our own strengths and weaknesses, the world doesn't care unless you use your strengths to your advantage. Say you are an incredible checkers player. You win an international competition at age 19 and win $1,000,000. If you don't continuously work on improving your skills and going out into the world to compete professionally, people will surpass you and you might be living off of welfare and food stamps at 35.
I'm not saying that if you continue to put in total effort you will remain the best of the best, but I can guarantee you that if you continue putting in tons of effort, even when you are at the very top, you will keep moving forwards. Being the best shouldn't be a constraint or limit, but rather proof that you have an obligation to contribute even more. If you become the best Astrophysicist at your university, you shouldn't slow down and take it easy because you are at the top. You should then work even harder to make enormous contributions and leaps forward to your field as a whole.
Wanting to be successful isn't selfish or narcissistic, but rather an obligation. You should feel like you are obligated to aspire to success. Not just for yourself, but for the world. Imagine what the world would look like if everyone fulfilled their obligation to reach their full potential. When you reach success, you aren't only doing good to yourself, but you are also inspiring those around you.
I feel obligated to reach success. Reaching for success restores a sense of control that so many of us are missing. People may call me crazy for writing a Steemit post, that will probably get less than 10 views, in the middle of the night when I could be asleep happily dreaming. But I am not crazy. And I will not take the easy way out. I am on a mission to keep moving forward. In the words of William Henley:
I am the master of my fate.
I am the captain of my soul.