How to Be Successful and Get Good at Finishing Things

📰 These articles really resonate with me because, as the titles suggest, I'm not successful yet and I have trouble finishing things.

Author

Fither
July 04, 2024

This is my first post. I've always wanted to write to share my thoughts, but for the past five years, I've made excuses. It's time to put an end to that.

So here I am. 🔥

If you're reading this, thank you very much. It means a lot to me.

This post is sponsored by my son. He's now 16 months old and incredibly cute. I cuddle him every day. Recently, he got his sixth little tooth, adding to his adorable collection.👶🏻

📰 In Today’s Pick..

So yesterday I found an interesting article by Sam Altman: ‘How to Be Successful”.

This is the snippet of the article:

3. Learn to think independently

Entrepreneurship is very difficult to teach because original thinking is very difficult to teach. School is not set up to teach this—in fact, it generally rewards the opposite. So you have to cultivate it on your own.

Thinking from first principles and trying to generate new ideas is fun, and finding people to exchange them with is a great way to get better at this. The next step is to find easy, fast ways to test these ideas in the real world.

“I will fail many times, and I will be really right once” is the entrepreneurs’ way. You have to give yourself a lot of chances to get lucky.

One of the most powerful lessons to learn is that you can figure out what to do in situations that seem to have no solution. The more times you do this, the more you will believe it. Grit comes from learning you can get back up after you get knocked down.

Sam Altman

There's much more in that article, but this point resonates deeply with me. If you were considered good at school, you can relate.

Schools are designed for students to solve the same problems, complete identical tasks, and be assessed using standardized scores.

The issue is that students are unique. The education system compels them to conform to rules, and anyone who deviates may be labeled as unsuccessful.

Failing an exam can be devastating for them. Parents who don't understand their children's potential also add pressure, instilling a fear of failure.

The student labeled as 'successful' is often the one who obediently follows rules, excelling in completing homework and exams to high standards. Ironically, these students are the ones who fear failure the most.

#2. Get Good at Finishing Things by Leo Babauta

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Make a deeper commitment: if you’re only half committed, then when things get busy, your commitment will go out the door. So it’s a practice to deepen the commitment — figure out why you really care about something, commit to others, and practice showing up no matter what. It’s like the commitment of a parent to feed their children — there’s no question.

Leo Babauta

We've all struggled with commitment. I certainly have.

Many of us have that Udemy course we haven't finished, New Year's resolutions we've abandoned, or workout plans that never materialized.

Leo explains that commitment is something we need to practice. I reflect on this analogy and see it much like learning to play the piano. Initially, we all struggle, stumbling over chords and melodies. But as we persist and our fingers become more adept, finishing what we start becomes easier.

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