The Lost Discipline of Practice — What I Learned Building… It’s easy to look at successful people and say “I wish I had _____”. Take Will Smith. Super successful, dedicated to his art. A household name that is synonymous with humor, fun and usually a good film. (I said usually) “I wish I had his fame & fortune.” How about LeBron James? Super talented and exceptional athlete, might be the best basketball player of all time. “I wish I had his athleticism.” How about some of the most world renowned artists, designers & thinkers. “I wish I had their imprint on society.” This is easy, we could do this all day. Dave Grohl said it best: “Buy a guitar and play in your garage and suck for a while. It’s true. Our generation has lost sight that some things, great things — take a while. At the end of the day, perfect practice makes perfect but, you can’t expect to be good without practice.
The 'Busy' Trap - NYTimes.com. TEDxUW - Larry Smith - Why you will fail to have a great career. How to Make the Most of Life | A Manvotional. “How to Make the Most of Life” From Every-day Religion, 1886 By James Freeman Clarke Some persons make a great deal of life; others very little. To some it is intensely interesting; to others, very vapid. Some are tired of life before they have begun to live. They seem, as has been said, to have been born fatigued. This…is the first rule for making the most of life: Forget yourself in some interest outside of yourself. But, you may say, we cannot all be inspired apostles or great philosophers. In the great storms which have lately swept over the north Atlantic, a steamer from our shores discovered another, dismasted and rudderless, drifting before the gale, its decks swept by terrible seas.
The poor steamer foundered because it drifted; because its steering apparatus was lost. These men, however, it may be said, were enthusiasts; they had enthusiasm for some pursuit, to which they devoted themselves. Managing Yourself: Extreme Productivity. Bob Pozen does a lot. He’s been a top executive at two mutual fund giants, Fidelity and MFS Investment Management.
He’s also been an attorney, a government official, a law school professor, a business school professor, and a prolific author. And he has often been several of those things at once. Yet Pozen never comes across as overwhelmed, frazzled, or even all that busy. We know this because he’s a frequent contributor to HBR and hbr.org—with a reputation around our offices for writing faster than we can edit. Our experiences with him led us to wonder if he might have something interesting to say about personal productivity. Principle 1: Know Your Comparative Advantage Many CEOs I’ve encountered say, “Here are the top five priorities for the company. The correct question is, “Which functions can only you as the CEO perform?” The same applies to midlevel executives. Listen to an interview with Bob Pozen.Download this podcast. Your Life Isn’t Limitless! Narrow Your Career Choices for Greater Happiness.
“You can do anything you put your mind to!” “The sky’s the limit!” “You’re the best!” “Follow your dreams!” Did you hear these kinds of things growing up? But now that that boy is grown up and in his twenties, you might find that such encouragement has become more paralyzing than motivating. Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist who specializes in counseling young patients who are struggling with navigating their twenties. “He couldn’t see land in any direction, so he didn’t know which way to go. The Alluring Myth of a Limitless Future As we all intrinsically know (and for reasons we’ll discuss more below), nobody’s future is in fact “limitless.” It feels freeing. For this reason, we may hesitate to choose one door, as it can feel like doing so closes a bunch of other ones. You have incredibly high expectations. You don’t know how to get started. If you don’t start, you can’t fail. You’re afraid of making the wrong choice. It’s easy. Everybody Starts with the Same Common Parts Source:
How Successful People Practice.