You Keep Falling Short… Aim Higher

When you keep falling short, it’s not always because you’re not good enough. Sometimes, it’s because you’re aiming too low.

We don’t always miss because we lack skill. We miss because we’re bored, under-challenged, boxed in. And that dullness wears us down in ways failure never could.

Psychologists call this the Overqualification Effect — you’re so capable that you get overlooked, or stuck in roles that drain your energy. You fit too well and shrink to match the small space you’re given. Add in Flow Theory, and you’ve got a perfect storm: when your abilities are too high for your challenges, you don’t stretch — you stagnate.

And sometimes, it’s not even that you aimed too low — it’s that you’ve been hitting the same target for too long. There’s a natural rhythm to growth: you try, you master, you optimise — and then you hit a quiet decline. Not because you’ve lost your edge, but because you’re no longer fully there. Your brain drifts, your spark dims. You miss not because you’re failing, but because you’re done. It’s time for a new challenge.

We think we’re protecting ourselves or our children by being “realistic.” But I’ve seen it too many times — young people held back by loving adults too afraid to let them fail.

Confidence doesn’t come from avoiding failure. It comes from surviving it — and realising you’re still here.

So if you keep falling short, don’t assume you need to be less. Try aiming higher.

Bigger target. Bigger stretch. Bigger you.

You’re not broken. You’re just bored.