Earlier this week I pulled a quote from an interview with Louis C.K. where he talks about how he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without a lot of hard work and patience.
I’m currently reading the book Mindset and a couple of paragraphs stuck out at me that were about pretty much the same thing. Here’s a great question to ask yourself (if you want to play along at home):
“Think about your hero. Do you think of this person as someone with extraordinary abilities who achieved with little effort? Now go find out the truth. Find out the tremendous effort that went into their accomplishment – and admire them more.”
Mindset is a book that talks about how people who think they have the ability to grow and change, do. It sounds corny, but the book is actually very simple and powerful. It shows how people who look at their life as a learning opportunity and don’t see their qualities as fixed are the ones who become the most successful.
Here’s something else to think about:
“Think of times other people outdid you and you just assumed they were smarter or more talented. Now consider the idea that they just used better strategies, taught themselves more, practiced harder, and worked their way through obstacles. You can do that, too, if you want to.”
The people who are more successful than you likely aren’t much different than you – they just work harder, and in a different direction.
