If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you're not going to get very far. You simply won't.
You don't have to become something that you aren't to become better than you are.
I am the me I choose to be.
You don't have to become something you're not to be better than you were.
I don't very often read novels.
If the image one holds of one's self contains elements that don't square with reality, one is best advised to let go of them, however difficult that may be.