I don't know who needs to hear this, but most things in life are way more achievable than you think. If you decide what you want, and go after it with full effort and intensity, the world will bend to your will far more easily than you might think. You can just do things!
If you're in your early 20s, and have been 'academically gifted' almost without much effort, read this.
You're about to discover that, for the very first time, life will demand effort from you.
You're about to fail. Miserably. Quite soon, and inevitably as well. You cannot avoid it.
You'll expect things to go easy, but they won't. Work (the practical side, at least) very often refuses to mirror the theory you're so adept at absorbing.
Work politics, the boss who's devoted to ensuring your brilliance never shows, the one who genuinely cannot process things as fast as you do, but you have to work under anyway.
The confidence identity you've built almost solely around academic brilliance is an unbelievably fragile platform to stand on, in a world designed for grit, speed and delusion.
Sometimes, in a bid to think everything through, you'll stand in your own way.
You sometimes try to create mental models of the world where everything is perfect, but what you're really doing is defaulting to what comes easily to you - thinking about thoughts.
Sometimes you think it's because you're not careless, but most times it's because what's defined you and your brilliance,has always been ease. So you correlate difficulty with near-failure. And you're scared.
Sometimes you imagine you're above entry level roles, because you've seen your peers (at this level you're very much in contact with outliers) get high paying roles. Then time flies by.
If you're looking to start a business, get a co-founder who's oriented towards getting things done. Or you, yourself, understand that every idea in life, however brilliant, demands getting done.
And accept that "doing" hasn't been your forte. So start throwing yourself into things you're terrible at. Get bad, work through it. Push through the discomfort of looking awkward, and find something you were bad at, that you forced yourself to get good in.
A very decent marker of competence, btw, is a book-smart person who can dance. They're smart enough to make functional mental models of a very complex world, yet humble enough to grind through things they're not naturally gifted at, risk looking awkward, for a reward at the end, or just because.
People like Yani Tseng are why I strongly believe a fall is never the end of greatness. You can rise again as long as you've the courage to start differently.
She was once the world’s No. 1 golfer. At age 23, she had won 5 majors already. Until one day, when she was diagnosed with a neurological condition that causes involuntary wrist spasms.
For athletes like Tseng, that meant no longer being able to make short putts. The same putts she used to sink with ease.
Rather than give up, she started learning to putt with her left hand because it could shortcircuit the brain and rewire around her yips. The downside was that she had to completely relearn.
A world champion, relearning! The most dominant golfer on the planet, starting all over like an amateur.
But eleven years later, the putt that sealed her comeback was from the exact type of distance that once given her uncontrollable fits. That left her helpless whenever she faced a short putt.
Only that this time, she had no problem knocking it home with her "lefty."
How far are you willing to go?
Bolt has launched 'Bolt Comfort' in Kenya, a new premium ride category tailored for Nairobi’s growing middle class and professional riders.
Here are more details about what it offers and how it works: