Don't let fantasy derail your success

When we visualise, it’s tempting to imagine ourselves with perfect lives. But no-one has a perfect life, not even the Hollywood movie stars. Indeed, the lives they portray to the media are often as much a fantasy as the movies that have catapulted them to stardom.

Sometimes the fantasy crumbles. For instance, the recent calamites of Johnny Depp, or of Bruce Willis or Michael J Fox, reassure us that our screen idols are just as susceptible to the travails of everyday life as the rest of us.

Equally, when we think of the deaf cast of CODA, which won the Best Picture statuette at this year’s Academy Awards, or of the challenges of people with dwarfism such as Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davis, then we are reassured that people with disabilities can make it in Hollywood, too.

My own pet disability is an unseen one – bipolar disorder. But a number of Hollywood actors suffer from that, most famously Catherine Zeta Jones. Ryan Reynolds suffers from anxiety. There are plenty of other well-known actors in Hollywood and elsewhere with mental illness. Some talk about it, some don't, that's their prerogative.

It's okay to visualise perfection in your goals. After all, we should all be aiming for perfection. Just remember, though, that there is no such thing as a perfect life, and perfection, even if achieved for a while, is hard to maintain. As a wise bard once said, "Shit Happens!"

If ever you feel down about the likelihood of achieving success in the light of the success of others, just remember that the perfection others project is most often an illusion. Remember, too, we are all human and that, to one extent or another, we all have our foibles and our disabilities, whether seen or unseen.

Whatever your disadvantage or disability, garner your resolve to overcome it and achieve success anyway.