Do You Live in a Glass Cage? 🕊️🔮

"The most dangerous cages are made of glass: they let you look at the sky, but forbid you from touching it"

When we think of a cage, we usually imagine iron bars, shadows, and cold. But in real life, the most dangerous cages are made of glass. They are beautiful, transparent, and offer us a panorama that excites us to live it. It's not enough to dream or have potential; you need to surround yourself with people and environments that have the capacity to take action, who can bring utopia into reality. There is an abysmal difference between those who remain in the realm of dreams and science fiction and those who have the discipline, will, and courage to make things happen.

If your environment is full of people who only "plan" but never "execute," you'll end up infected by that analysis paralysis. Real growth requires people who not only admire the landscape with you but are willing to open the door and walk toward it. Whether it's your work team, partner, or friends.

As a researcher, I frequently observe how we make ourselves smaller to fit into these spaces. We fold our wings, lower the volume of our voice, and limit our talent or feelings with the hope that, eventually, the environment will change and let us fly. However, a glass cage still has one function: to contain you.

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck speaks of the Growth Mindset as the conviction that our capabilities can be developed. But for this mindset to bear fruit, it needs operability, we need to go into the realm of reality.

The problem is that we fall in love with potential and not with reality, and it's okay to dream because it's the breath of growth, but there comes a moment when if we stay in the "could become" or what the job "promised it would be," that hope becomes a chain.

It's a glass wall. You didn't see it coming because it's transparent, because it's "pretty," but the impact is real. You're in a cage that has no bars, but that prevents you from moving forward, feeling, and living that landscape you see... the "false hopes," and that's where these cages become addictive. The view excites us, the horizon fills us with hope, and we stay there, stuck to the glass, waiting for that carrot to finally be within reach. But there is a scientific and human truth we must face: if the glass doesn't break, the panorama will always be just an image, never a reality. It's true that "we are made of dreams," but also of real experiences.

Studies on Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957) explain that when we repeatedly hit the glass wall, our brain invents justifications not to leave: "it has so much potential," "things will change soon," your brain enters a state of Learned Helplessness (Seligman, 1972): you stop trying to fly because the environment has taught you that you will always hit the glass.

When the environment is not fertile, the plant doesn't grow, not for lack of its own capacity, but for lack of social nutrients and operational capacity. Social science tells us that we are, to a large extent, the result of our ecosystem. If your work, romantic, or family ecosystem becomes a glass ceiling, your growth mindset ends up crashing against a limit that you didn't set, but that you have accepted to inhabit, and that is your responsibility.

Recognizing that you're in a glass cage is painful because it implies admitting that the panorama you love so much and fills you with hope is, in reality, your limit. Social incidence begins with oneself: by stopping being "spectators" of our own life.

The proposal for this week, one evening with a cup of coffee and when the noise of the world quiets down, think about these three points:

Identify the glass: If you feel like you're hitting the same limit over and over again, despite your effort, it's likely not a lack of talent, but a barrier in the environment.

Stop shrinking yourself: No one should make themselves small so others don't feel uncomfortable. If you have to fold your wings to fit in a place, that place is not for you.

The power of letting go: Recognizing that a cycle has ended is the brave and intelligent act. Letting go of a relationship, a position, or a family dynamic is clearing the runway for true takeoff, it's making space for something else to happen.

Seek people of action: Stay away from "smoke sellers" and those who postpone life. People who make things happen have a brain structure oriented toward resolution and providing options to operate, and that's contagious.

We have all been or could be in a glass cage, and to move forward, it is necessary to perform a deep forgiveness exercise. Forgive yourself for not having seen the glass before; forgive yourself for having been excited about a potential that didn't exist and for having allowed your wings to be stored for lack of space, in fact you must recognize your bravery in betting on a project, a job, a connection, an environment, etc.

Dare to see the cage as it is, a transparent structure that allows you to look at the sky but forbids you from touching it. Breaking the glass doesn't have to be an act of violence or chaos, an act of sovereignty over yourself and knowing that the horizon is not meant to be seen, it's meant to be inhabited.

Rebellion, Madness, Science, and Happiness!

With enthusiasm, Claudia Lizbet Soto Casillas