The Presentation Paradox
Overcoming the illusion of effortless excellence.
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We see the world not as it is, but as it is presented to us.
Stephen R. Covey
Living in today’s world is intimidating. Everywhere we look excellence is thrust in front of us.
Top performers are put on a pedestal at work, and parents or significant others are quick to point out exceptional peers. Our friends show off on social media, and we’re always watching or listening to creators and professionals in the top 1% of their field.
No matter where we look, all we see is effortless success and peak performance.
Naturally, we compare what we see with our peers and role models with our own lives and it’s incredibly disheartening. While others are gliding through life unencumbered, we’re stuck with self-doubt, challenging circumstances, and lackluster results.
The logical explanation our brains create is others are more talented, disciplined, and fortunate than we are. Despite our hard work, we can’t create the same effortless results as everyone else.
However, there's one crucial difference between our experience and others: we never get to see how the sausage is made with everyone else.
Behind closed doors
When we see the results and accomplishments of others we never see the blood, sweat, tears, and failure that came before the finished product. The effortless results came despite tremendous struggle, but we didn’t see any of it.
In a hyper-connected world, seeing what everyone is doing is impossible to avoid, but every person operates like a restaurant. Behind closed doors, the kitchen is mayhem. Chefs are screaming, servers are dropping plates, food is burning, and 101 other things are going wrong, but the only thing seen by the public is the perfectly cooked and beautifully plated dinner delivered at the perfect time.
We all project the appearance of calm control when sharing things with the public regardless of how easy or difficult it was behind the scenes. When we look around and all we see is effortless excellence it’s easy to forget it’s an illusion. The short period of time we interact with any finished product, a social media post, a podcast, or a book is merely a fraction of 1% of the time it took the person behind closed doors to painstakingly create it before sharing it with the world.
Presentation is not reality
When we’re working on something important or struggling with a difficult project or season of life, it’s helpful to remember that everything we see is a final product.
When we peek behind the scenes it only takes a few moments to see that everyone we admire and envy is just as flawed and frantic as we are.
What we see is only what others choose to present to the world.
This presentation paradox leaves a massive rift between reality and our perception.
Understanding the paradox empowers us to ignore the perceived gap between our efforts and others’ results and focus instead on the messy but meaningful improvement of our own work as we prepare to present it to the world.
Prompts
What seems effortless for others that is difficult for you?
What is effortless for you that seems difficult for others?
Where are you consuming the most “presentation” from others? How can you limit this?
Deep Dive
Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
A manifesto for sharing every part of the creative process to grow your network and break down the presentation paradox.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin