Don’t give up. Have agency.

So what do you do in a world where the bar keeps getting higher?

I’ll tell you what you don’t do. You don’t give up. You don’t say, “There’s nothing I can do.” Because that is guaranteed to fail. It’s guaranteed to leave you in the same place as before while the world gets even more competitive.

Instead, you should focus on what you can control. This includes: your effort, your discipline, and your attention. You can’t change U.S. home prices, but you can change how you save. You can change how you think about your career. You can change what you spend your time on.

Most people already know that things are getting harder. This isn’t a revelation. However, many of them use this as an excuse to give up.

But, if anything, this information should produce the opposite reaction. Because it implies that there’s still an edge in not giving up.

Nick Maggiulli in his excellent blog post The Bar Only Gets Higher