When we try to deal with the difficult demands of today, what advice do we receive? The same thing we’ve been told for hundreds of years, perhaps with a few feel-good twists:
- Work hard.
- Be passionate.
- Focus on your strengths.
- Practice a lot.
- Stick to it.
- Be grateful.
No doubt, this is popular, positive, useful advice. It’s solid and it’s timeless. You can’t go wrong with this philosophy. And it certainly makes one hell of a commencement speech.
But is this advice adequate?
Do you know any hardworking people who have all these things going for them, yet they’re still not even close to the level of success and fulfillment they want in life?
Isn’t it true that there are billions of hard workers on the bottom of the pile? Don’t you know plenty of passionate people in your hometown who have plateaued? Haven’t you met plenty of people who know their strengths but still struggle with clarity, don’t have a clue what to do when a new project starts, and keep getting surpassed by people with lesser strengths?
Maybe all these people should practice more, right? Put in their then thousand hours? But lots of practices happen and championships are still lost. Maybe it’s their attitude? Maybe they should just be more grateful and mindful? Yet there are plenty of folks gratefully persevering themselves into dead-end jobs and relationships.
What gives?
* Source: High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard